Why Always Me? - The Biography of Mario Balotelli, City's Legendary Striker. Frank Worrall
Crespo, in particular, appeared put out that Mancini was pushing the young Balotelli into the team whenever he could.
It was Crespo who would start up front with Balotelli, but the Argentinean made it clear he thought his fellow countryman Julio Cruz should have been his attacking partner. In the second half Mancini would substitute Cruz for Crespo, much to the latter’s obvious discontent.
Not that that worried Roberto one bit: he was a man and a manager well aware of how players could act up…after all, he had certainly done enough of that himself in his own playing days! He was oblivious to Crespo’s emotions – all that mattered was getting the result and if that meant Mario was the man who would help achieve that better than Cruz, then so be it.
And Roberto would be vindicated as Balotelli once again took the accolades. He set up the first goal for Patrick Vieira and then scored the second himself. But even Mario was not excluded from Mancini’s tunnel vision approach to winning. Seven minutes from time Roberto decided Mario was tiring and even subbed him, bringing on Luis Figo in his place!
The win meant Inter remained four points clear of Roma at the top of the league with 72 points – and now looked firm favourites to take the title.
The appropriately-named Italian football journalist Anna Italia, of Italian Soccer Serie A blog, pointed out the match proved once again that Balotelli was becoming undroppable in the Inter side – and that his star was rising with each game under his belt. Anna said, ‘It was an intense match. Yet, it took Inter 20 minutes to break Atalanta’s defence. In the 21st minute, 17 years old striker Mario Balotelli makes an assist to midfielder Patrick Vieira who heads from the centre of the box to the very top right corner. It was interesting to see the “silent reaction of Hernan Crespo” when Inter coach Roberto Mancini substituted him in the 57th minute for striker Julio Cruz. Hey, Crespo was not happy because he walked straight past Mancini who just padded his back as saying “well done.”
‘In the 74th minute, midfielder Dejan Stankovic sends an assist to Mario Balotelli who shoots from the centre of the box to the bottom right corner. What a day for Balotelli. First he provides the assist for the first goal, then, he scored the second goal. What else could he ask for?’
Balotelli was delivering regularly and Inter now went on to win the Serie A title. Mario had won his first major honour at the age of 17. But it was another big-name striker who would make sure that the title returned to the San Siro boardroom. Yes, the mighty Swede, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, returned from a two-month lay-off to claim the win that meant Inter finished just above Roma.
He scored twice in the must-win final game at Parma after only coming on as a sub at half-time. Drawing 0-0 at the interval, Inter were at that stage behind Roma in the battle for the title. But goals from Ibrahimovic in the 62nd and 79th minutes meant that the Nerazzurri clinched their 16th Scudetto – and their third in a row. Once again, Mancini had stood by Balotelli, picking him in his starting line-up even when Ibrahimovic was raring to go on his comeback.
Mario celebrated the title win as energetically as any of his team-mates. He was overjoyed – what a first season in the big time it had been. But just as it seemed he had arrived and would now go on to become an all-time great at Inter, an unexpected dark cloud would appear on the horizon – and it went by the name of Jose Mourinho.
After becoming the club’s most successful manager in 30 years, Roberto Mancini was about to be sacked by Internazionale. The man who had become a mentor and a minder for Mario would soon be gone – and he would be left to deal with an altogether darker, more Machiavellian individual. A man who would not take the time or make the efforts to wrap Mario in cotton wool and defend him against any criticism to aid his development. No, Mourinho was very much a man whose ego declared there could only be one idol at any club he worked – himself. From the moment he walked through the door, Mario was living on borrowed time at Internazionale. From being the boy who could be a hero, he had now become an irritant and eventually ‘unmanageable’ to the new manager.
Mancini had been at the club for four years and had won three consecutive Serie A titles (an Inter club record) and a European record 17 consecutive league game victories stretching nearly half a season. Again he guided Inter to the Coppa Italia final, but lost for a second consecutive season to Roma, 2–1 at the Stadio Olimpico. His time was officially up on May 29, 2008, when Inter put out a statement announcing his sacking.
It was an undignified end to his career at the San Siro and, surely given his record, unwarranted. But while Mancini walked away to lick his wounds confident his reputation as a top-class manager had not been affected – and confident too that he would eventually walk into another top job – Mario eyed the future with some trepidation. He knew of Mourinho and his reputation – and he was also sad that his mentor Mancini had gone. What should have been a summer of holidaying fun turned into one clouded by the shock sacking and the fear of the unknown with the Portuguese man of war.
What should have been an easy-going, fun summer for Mario Balotelli proved somewhat less enjoyable as he weighed up the imminent arrival of new Inter Milan boss Mourinho. With mentor and surrogate father figure Mancini gone away into self-enforced retirement (for a season at least), Balotelli wondered what the future would hold for him – as, to be fair, did all the Internazionale players that summer.
Would he fit in with Mourinho’s plans – or would he fail to gel with the Portuguese? At least there was one big boost for Mario that early summer of 2008 – when Inter approached him to let him know that they wanted him to sign a new deal, so pleased was club supreme Moratti with his efforts. It was a deal signed before Mourinho arrived – probably just as well, you might say, given the benefit of hindsight about how the two of them so consistently rubbed each other up the wrong way!
It was confirmed by Inter that they had signed him on a three-year contract that would take him through to June 2011. ‘Mario Balotelli has signed a new contract with F.C. Internazionale that ties him to the club until 30 June 2011,’ the club said. ‘The documents were registered at the Italian Football League’s offices this morning.’
Agence France-Presse (AFP) commented, ‘Balotelli made a massive impression in 2007/08 after being given a first-team opportunity. He played an important part in Inter holding their nerve in the run-in to the title, and his pace and power allowed him to score an impressive seven goals in 15 matches. 12 August will be doubly significant, because when he turns 18 he will qualify for an Italian passport and the right to compete for the national teams. He has already turned down various offers from Ghana and had he celebrated his birthday before August, there was a realistic chance that he may have been included in Pierluigi Casiraghi’s squad at the Olympic Games in Beijing.’
Delighted Mario may have been about his new deal – and certainly it left him more settled and at ease at the club – but now he had to convince his tough new Portuguese boss that he was the boy-man to do the business for him. That he was good enough to lead the attack in tandem with the already established No 1 striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Mourinho arrived at the San Siro for pre-season training in the summer of 2008 and promised that he would give all the existing players at the club a fair chance to prove themselves under him. Whether he truly meant it or not is highly debatable – particularly with the younger players like Mario. Certainly when he first arrived at Chelsea – and indeed throughout his tenure there – he never really struck me as a man who wanted to nurture and develop young talent. The thing is this with Jose: he is a short-termist. He likes to arrive at a club, win trophies with players who are at their peak – whether they are already in the squad or need to be brought in expensively – and then move on.
He never developed a youth policy at Chelsea that would pay dividends in the years after his exit – nor did he do so at Inter Milan. So Mario was right to be cautious about the new manager’s arrival. The Telegraph’s