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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Mark Wakefield

Former Liverpool striker almost comes to blows with his own manager during heated on-field row

Former Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli was involved in a heated exchange with his manager at his current club.

Balotelli spent two years contracted with the Reds, after signing from AC Milan for £16million in 2014. He returned to Italy in 2015 on loan, before securing a permanent move to Nice in 2016.

Since then, Balotelli’s career has seen him have stints at various clubs across Italy, including Brescia and Monza. He is currently with Turkish club Adana Demirspor, and it was at their most recent match where Balotelli made the headlines for the wrong reasons.

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The incident occurred after Balotelli left the pitch following the final whistle after Adana claimed a 1-0 Turkish Super Lig victory over Umraniye. Whilst Balotelli walked off, he appeared to say something to his manager, Vincenzo Montella.

After Balotelli’s inaudible comments, Montella appeared to be provoked and needed to be restrained by his backroom staff. Montella then turned and appeared to lunge towards Balotelli and they were only separated by last-ditch intervention by staff on the pitch.

Montella, who made more than 200 appearances for Roma during his playing days, was asked about the incident after the match in his post-match press conference. However, he would not go into detail about what was said between himself and Balotelli.

“I can only say that we expect more from him,” Montella said at a post-match press conference, as quoted by Gazzetta.

“These things can happen at the end of a game. Sometimes adrenaline makes you say other things, but to me, it ends here.”

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