Who doesn't love a good Mario Balotelli story? Fireworks out of the bathroom window and driving around Manchester with thousands of pounds sitting in the passenger seat 'because he can' were just two of the 'legendary' moments that we all had a good chuckle about during his time at Man City.
However, since his return to the Premier League, Balotelli's notorious moments seemed to have calmed down. There was the accidental Instagram post but apart from that it's been mostly quiet on the controversy front. Maybe the recently turned 25 year old had calmed his ways or maybe Liverpool were just better at keeping things under wraps.
Perhaps we'll find out in due time because as the Italian gets closer to the exit door, we now have one more Balotelli story and one which looks like it might have been the final nail in the coffin for the £16 million man.
During the nadir of Liverpool's season, in the build-up to their 4-1 loss against Arsenal in April, Balotelli scored an astonishing goal from the near the halfway line during a training ground match. According to the independent.co.uk, 'first-team players shook their heads in disbelief' and 'youngsters smirked nervously at the brilliance in front of them'.
As you may have guessed by now, it was an own-goal. Balotelli had turned around and blasted one past Brad Jones, laughing to himself as he did it. It's fair to say the coaching staff were less than pleased. Not only was he dropped from the squad to face Arsenal but he barely got a look in for the rest of the season.
Classic Mario. With stories like that Liverpool fans may be pleased to hear that Italian transfer guru Gianluca Di Marzio is reporting that Sampdoria are determined to bring Balotelli back to Serie A before the end of the season. The only problem is that they are unable to afford his wages and are going to need Liverpool to chip in if they want him out of Anfield.
We'd suggest it might be money well spent.
