Reuters Soccer Blog

Balotelli courts maturity not Milan

Mario Balotelli has got into more scrapes than a bad teenage skateboarder but the maturing Italy striker has finally found some inner peace and his game is therefore flourishing.

A goal and commanding performance in Friday’s 2-0 friendly win in Poland followed other good displays for Manchester City, notably the 6-1 hammering of Manchester United at Old Trafford.

After scoring in that derby he revealed a T-shirt which read “Why always me?”, a question the colourful character also used to pose while playing at Inter Milan.

He is rarely allowed to speak publicly by PR men scared at what the 21-year-old will say next but in one post-match interview in Serie A in January last year, the forward made himself a comedy hero among many Italian fans.

“These things always seem to happen to me,” he said after picking up a needless yellow card in an Inter game at Chievo Verona which meant a suspension.

His self deprecation pricked ears and TV viewers across Italy thought he might finally be growing up.

However, in what was then typical style and with the interview apparently over, Balotelli suddenly lurched back into the shot and said: “I want to say one thing. Every time I come here to Verona this crowd disgusts me more and more.”

Soccer Break Monday – Manchester united?

A united Manchester after both football sides won major honours on Saturday? No chance. Both City and United will parade the streets in open-top bus parades, just a week apart.

Read here for a roundup of all things European football over the weekend, during which titles were won, tears were shed, and more trophies were dropped.

Yes, Sergio Ramos spilling the King’s Cup in Spain was not a one off, though worryingly Ajax and Dutch goalkeeper Maarten Stekelenburg, touted as a possible Man United replacement for compatriot Edwin van der Sar, was the culprit.

Eleswhere Barcelona fans and players have been throwing red peppers after clinching the La Liga title, read here for an explanation. Who look the stronger going into the Champions League final, Barca or United?

Finally, he swore on live television after his side’s FA Cup victory on Saturday, but are people now warming to Mario Balotelli?

Discuss all these topics and other stories in world soccer on the Reuters Soccer Facebook page. And please feel free to send us recommendations for your pick of the day’s stories.

Picture: Manchester City fans celebrate after their team defeated Stoke City in their FA Cup final soccer match at Wembley Stadium, in London May 14, 2011. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Soccer Break Monday

Real Madrid 1 Barcelona 1. Pictures of the teams suggest they were both pleased with the result but you would imagine Barcelona came away the happier side. Though Real were down to ten men for almost the entire second half so must be relieved not to have lost.

Who gained the upper hand then from the first of four clasicos between last Saturday and May 3? Wednesday will be an interesting affair in the King’s Cup final, a one off match as opposed to the two-legged Champions League semi-final.

Another fierce rivalry that was played out over the weekend was the Manchester derby, where the blue half of the city emerged victorious to ease the pressure on Roberto Mancini who must surely fancy his chances of beating Stoke City in the FA Cup final to hand City their first piece of silverware since 1976.

Ugly scenes marred the end of the match in which Rio Ferdinand and Mario Balotelli clashed but the United captain was quick to play down the spat. Balotelli in the news again though, will he stay at City?

At Arsenal’s Emirates Stadium a quite extraordinary end to the match provided two penalties and a managerial dispute after the final whistle following Liverpool’s 102nd-minute penalty to snatch a 1-1 draw with the Londoners, whose chances of the title are diminishing rapidly.

Thankfully Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who suffered a sickening but accidental blow to the head in the second half and was stretchered off holding up play for eight minutes, is well.

In Europe several teams moved closer to winning their respective leagues, and back in England Tottenham Hotspur’s Gareth Bale was given the player of the year award. If the price on his head wasn’t already big enough, surely now he will be a major target for European clubs this summer. Will he stay or will he go?

Soccer Break Thursday

As the weekend approaches we can all start getting excited about domestic football again and the increase in stories and transfer speculation.

Read here for Arsenal and Real Madrid transfer news, and Tottenham Hotspur fans beware, Niko Kranjcar appears unsettled. It would be a shame to lose such a talent.

We have a Premier League and a Ligue 1 preview for you, and an analysis of the mountain of statistics that come with football reporting. Do you have any amazing stats up your sleeve?

A very topical issue at this time of the year is player burnout. With all to play for managers must exercise caution when choosing their teams but also risk the wrath of the fans if they do not pick their ‘best’ side. Do you pick your strongest 11 regardless?

A player who may well burn himself out without even setting foot on the pitch is Mario Balotelli. The gifted yet volatile Italian is yet again in trouble, this time apparently for throwing darts out of a window at Manchester City’s youth team.

A word on Euro 2012, where England manager Fabio Capello believes his team’s young players will flourish just like Germany did at the 2010 World Cup. Excited at the prospect? Then buy your tickets now.

Staying with the international game, and click here for a good read on the switching allegiances debate.

Soccer Break Monday

Welcome back to a new week of football stories but not before we’ve taken you through our roundup of the weekend’s action around Europe.

What was your highlight? Milan’s loss in Italy which breathed new life into the Serie A title chase, or the ability of the leaders in England, Spain, France and Germany to win no matter what?

Dimitar Berbatov’s late strike for Manchester United certainly produced a large sigh of relief from the red half of Manchester as well as several of my colleagues.

The Bulgarian is an interesting character. Read here for a look at a player who could well be a shoe in for the player of the year award but who remains a little difficult to work out.

There were few if any highlights from the last few days as far as Manchester City striker Mario Balotelli is concerned. Hit by luggage, dropped from the Italy squad, when will it ever go right for the gifted yet temperamental youngster?

Would you like him at your club? Which manager do you think would have the best chance of taming him? Surely Roberto Mancini has as good a chance as anyone with his Italian.

Now this week is a first for Soccer Break with internationals on the horizon. Any Wolves fans out there? proud to see Matt Jarvis in the squad? Well deserved we say, there’s not been a harder worker in the Premier League over the last 12 months and Jarvis will be hoping he can help Wolves avoid the drop.

Soccer Break Friday

Friday. That means almost weekend. Which means yet more football. When does it ever stop? We don’t want it to though, especially with some cracking FA Cup games in store as well as Europe’s top sides slugging it out in their respective leagues.

First however, here’s our take on the Europa League action on Thursday. Some nicely poised ties, though it was not a good night for Liverpool or Manchester City, or Mario Balotelli for that matter.

This blog argues Balotelli is damaging his Man City career. What do you think? Balotelli is undoubtedly talented, just not consistent enough. Perhaps time will tell.

As for Liverpool, the Europa League is their only realistic chance of silverware this season. Was it disappointing to see so little urgency at the start of the game? Or do you feel the league match against Manchester United took a great deal out of Kenny Dalglish’s men?

For any Liverpool fans, would you prefer to have a storming end of the season in the league and finish in the top four (thus guaranteeing a chance to qualify for the Champions League) or win the Europa League? Have a read here for all things Anfield.

Over to my colleagues now to give their expert previews on all things Europe, from La Liga to Serie A then Ligue 1 to the Bundesliga.

Finally, the FA Cup. Still the greatest cup competition out there? Debatable, but for all his medals at Man United, midfielder Michael Carrick badly wants to raise the famous old trophy aloft.

Italian referee leads the way in battling racist chants

Italian soccer has long struggled with racist chanting, a horror which has largely been stamped out in countries like England and Germany.

The problem persists in Italy but finally the tide is turning and ignorant fans are being beaten.

First Mario Balotelli was racially abused by Juventus fans while playing for Inter Milan two seasons ago. Italian soccer authorities had been handing out small fines for years but this time Juve were hit with a one-game stadium ban.  

A fallout from that incident was the decision to allow referees to suspend games if racist chanting is heard.

The odd racist song has continued in Italian stadiums over the past year and nothing was done. Until Sunday.

Only three minutes had been played in Cagliari’s game with Inter Milan when referee Paolo Tagliavento surprised everyone by stopping the match. A public announcement told Cagliari fans the game would be abandoned if the “monkey noises” aimed at Samuel Eto’o carried on.

The game resumed and no more chants were heard.

Where do awful Italy go from here?

If you thought Italy were awful at this World Cup it could get even worse in future tournaments.

The slow, unimaginative holders were embarrassed 3-2 by Slovakia on Thursday to crash out in the group stage and retiring captain Fabio Cannavaro reckons the country is just not producing top players anymore.

I asked in a blog before the tournament whether Marcello Lippi’s Italy were the worst ever world champions and now I’m predicting what the team might look like under new coach Cesare Prandelli for Euro 2012, if struggling Italy qualify of course.

A lot of the current team are over 30 and may have had their day so younger players will come in (although young in Italian soccer means 27…). You might not have heard of many of them, and that is exactly the point Cannavaro was making, but Prandelli may want to make radical changes.

Here’s my Italy XI for 2012.

Goalkeeper: Federico Marchetti – Gianluigi Buffon is very injury-prone and there are doubts how much his body can take even if he is having back surgery soon. Marchetti did not do anything wrong in South Africa but doesn’t inspire huge confidence with his constant punching

Balotelli succeeds Cassano as Lippi’s torment

No sooner had the campaign to get Sampdoria forward Antonio Cassano an Italy call-up subsided than Inter Milan’s Mario Balotelli had taken his place as coach Marcello Lippi’s ‘tormentor’.

Cassano’s supporters have been silenced by his recent form and injury problems, along with the frosty relations with club coach Luigi Del Neri that suggest he may not have subdued the temperament issues that dogged him in the past — the apparent reason Lippi consistently overlooked him.

Lippi knew all along that the Italian media needs at least one outcast to champion in the traditional of epic pre-tournament furores such as the campaign for Roberto Baggio to be called up by Giovanni Trapattoni before the 2002 World Cup. “Bring on the torments,” he said while the Cassano controversy was raging.

But this time even Lippi’s boss, Italian Football Federation president Giancarlo Abete, has spoken in favour of having Balotelli bumped up from the Italy under-21 team.

“Balotelli is mature and Lippi can count on him, although it’s up to him to decide,” Abete told Sky television on Thursday, the day after Balotelli helped the under-21 team beat Hungary 2-0 while the seniors were held 0-0 by Cameroon.

Earlier this season some journalists lobbied for Balotelli, who is of Ghanaian decent, to be called up by Lippi as a response to the racist taunts he has frequently faced at Serie A stadiums.

This time, however, the campaign is based purely on his strong form for Inter, with him showing technical ability and a physical presence that arguably make him Italy’s most complete striker.

How far should intimidating chants go?

Juventus have been fined 20,000 euros rather than receive a stadium ban for an offensive chant their fans sing about Inter Milan’s black striker Mario Balotelli.

As songs go, it is pretty insulting. “Se saltelli, muore Balotelli” (If you jump up and down, Balotelli will die).

However, the big question is whether the song is racist. The Italian league has decided it is offensive and incites violence but has not classified it as racist, hence the fine and no heftier punishment. Many Italians disagree and say the Juve fans would not sing such a song if he was white.

Of course last season Juve were forced to play a game behind close doors after home fans sang “a black Italian does not exist” at Palermo-born Balotelli in a game with champions Inter.

Most Premier League fans will know of an especially nasty chant aimed at Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger while there are several English songs about getting a gun to “shoot some (most hated rival club) scum”.

In England, fans largely get away with these sorts of chants. But should they go unpunished given there are children in the stadiums? It hardly helps build the fabric of society. Then again, if attempts were made to ban all such chants, would some of the wonderful match-day banter we all enjoy get lost?