Mario Balotelli is one of the more controversial figures to have played for Liverpool in the Premier League era.
Signed for £16m from AC Milan in the summer of 2014, as a replacement for Luis Suarez just weeks after Brendan Rodgers had insisted the Reds didn’t want the Italian, his Anfield career was short and dreadful.
Scoring just four goals from 28 appearances, with only one strike coming in the Premier League, he was sent back to Milan on loan after just one season. He then joined Nice on a free transfer in 2016, as he slated both Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp while calling his move to Liverpool the "worst mistake of his life".
“I joined Liverpool. It was the worst mistake of my life,” he told Canal Plus, after scoring twice on his Nice debut, when asked what had gone wrong in his career. “Apart from the fans, who were fantastic with me, I must be honest, and the players, who I had a good rapport with, I didn’t like the club.
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“I had two coaches, Brendan Rodgers and Jurgen Klopp. As people they didn’t make a good impression on me. I didn’t get along with them.”
Balotelli’s colourful antics throughout his career are well documented, with his most famous incidents at Liverpool arguably being falling out with Rodgers in training after refusing to go back and defend on corners, and deliberately scoring own goals in training.
Former manager Jose Mourinho once described him as "unmanageable", with legendary Reds captain Steven Gerrard later doubling down on such a sentiment.
Yet one of Balotelli’s most memorable seasons came under Mourinho’s management in 2009/10 as the Italian helped Inter Milan win the treble. While an unused substitute for the Champions League final victory over Bayern Munich, he did score 11 goals that season, with only Diego Milito and former Everton striker Samuel Eto’o scoring more for the Serie A giants.
However, such success was not without Balotelli controversy. He angered supporters and team-mates by throwing his shirt to the floor after the final whistle in the Champions League semi-finals as the Serie A side recorded a 3-1 first leg win over Barcelona. After the game, he was criticised publicly with midfielder Dejan Stankovic saying, “he's like a child.”
And former Everton defender Marco Materazzi has revealed how he once asked Mourinho to play against the Italian in training, a week after that victory over Barcelona, such was his frustration with the forward, so he could give him a ‘good beating’.
Meanwhile, the 2006 World Cup winner also shared how Inter team-mates ‘wanted to kill him’ after the forward had declared he was going to play badly against the La Liga giants, and then put in a poor performance after emerging from the bench.
“I gave him a good beating, it's true", Materazzi explained on his Instagram, quoted by the Daily Mail. “I love Mario, but he really deserved it that day.
“We've become friends again now, practically brothers, but he did something that day that he really should not have done. Throwing his shirt to the ground after the final whistle wasn't even the worst of it.
“Before the game, on the team bus, he told us: 'Today I'm going to play badly,' so I promised to make him pay if he did. When he came off the bench, he tried a shot from midfield rather than going on the counter. Diego Milito wanted to kill him.
“We believed in Mario, he scored many goals and contributed to the victory, but a week after that, I asked Mourinho to put me against Balotelli in the training ground games between ranks. After a few seconds, I'd sent him back to the dressing room.”
Balotelli now finds himself playing in Switzerland for Sion, after being forced out by Turkish side Adana Demirspor last summer following an on-pitch altercation with manager Vincenzo Montella. The 32-year-old would score six goals from 19 appearances last season, and even captained the Swiss side on occasions in a campaign disrupted by injury.
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