“Bad Boy Entertainment did not shoot anybody. I didn’t shoot anybody.” – Puff Daddy
Stubborn, petulant, aggressive, uncouth and cold; it’s entirely fair to say that Mario Balotelli doesn’t enjoy the fawning sympathy of the world’s media. Painted as an uncontrollable young man lacking the requisite facilities for respect and decency, Balotelli is treated like a caged animal as journalists and opponents alike prod him with sticks before running for cover and hoping that they’ve done enough to provoke a response.
The self-righteous shake their heads ruefully at his every action, labelling him as everything that is wrong with ‘The Modern Game’, but I think the time has come to stand up for Super Mario. Indeed, I am even will to go as far as to say that he is everything we should love about the this sport of ours in this day and age.
Football – despite its high-stakes, win-at-all-costs culture – is an entertainment industry and primarily designed to interest those who chose to spend their money on a ticket to a game.
Too often this beautiful simplicity is lost in a tide of vehemence and myopia, this most global of sports causing angst, conflict and violence amongst those who forget that football is merely a game constructed to provide us with a few fleeting moments of pleasure on our journey from dust to dust.
With the vast majority of players trained in the art of providing the media with the most tiresome of platitudes, surely any player who divides opinion with their behaviour and gives us something to talk about is worthy of praise.
After all, isn’t one of any footballer’s primary functions simply to entertain, to be an enthralling member of the dramatis personae in the rich narrative that is world football? If we are to follow that strand of thought to its natural conclusion then we can hold Mario Balotelli to be one of the game’s most glorious protagonists.
“A police car and a screaming siren,
Pneumatic drill and ripped up concrete,
A baby wailing, a stray dog howling,
The screech of brakes and lamplights blinking,
That’s entertainment, that’s entertainment.”
Balotelli infuriates and perplexes in equal measure many who try to understand him, the excuses offered for his behaviour ranging from his difficult upbringing to the racist abuse he so regularly suffered from while playing in Italy. While these factors have undoubtedly contributed to his defensive and occasionally hostile persona, there is no need to psycho-analyse or attempt to explain the Italian’s actions, in the sense of entertainment in its purest form he is serving his purpose to a much fuller extent than many of his colleagues.
I watch football to be entertained by a rich cast of characters with varying levels of ability, and it is this personalisation which, at least to my own subjectivity, makes the game worth watching. Of course, sport devoid of personalities can still be enjoyable, but isn’t a significant part of the enjoyment we derive from the game taken from discussing the individuality of the players we watch from week to week? If every player was as straight-laced as Stewart Downing or David Platt the game would surely lose some of its inherent attraction.
Of the same genus as Cantona, Asprilla and Di Canio, Balotelli is the latest in a long line of players whose erratic temperament has been fêted as another facet of their incredible footballing ability. However, perhaps because he is yet to produce consistently excellent performances for Manchester City, Balotelli is not presently held with quite the same esteem as his fellow erratic geniuses. Still only 20-years-old, there is plenty of time for that recognition to attach itself to his profile.
He’s arrogant, childish and frighteningly egotistical, but so what? Mario Balotelli is an entertainer and a brilliant footballer, can we really ask much more of our athletes? Like Puff Daddy, Balotelli didn’t shoot anyone, so why not just let Mario get on with being Mario?
Are you not entertained? The show goes on.
You did it! Without mentioning the indefensible five fingered hat, without mentioning the sloping sulky shoulders or the first vestiges of a grin when he realised people were enjoying him, without mentioning the snood and the skull-cap gloves. You may have persuaded me – a die-hard City fan – to give him one more chance. Or maybe two!
Great piece. It is so tiresome reading the monotonous articles written about Balotelli. Finally someone has taken the opposing view and presented it very well indeed. He is a player I have not actually been able to form an opinion on yet as he never seems to be on the pitch long enough. Surely a great talent but as the article mentions just a great entertainer – long may it continue.
Very well written piece, clearly a marked man, unbelievable he got a red for that (the video above)! Clearly he has issues but seriously the people who need to be adults are the referees and stupid journalists. Opposing players provokes him, knowing he has a short fuse, and wait for him to implode. The stupid referees ignores tackles on him and gives him a card if he as much as sneezes. In one EPL game he got a yellow for smashing his hands on the ground in frustration for a no call foul on him! Leave the boy alone idiots. I offer no defense for his “madness” but the referees, pundits and journalists reactions are worse than Mario’s stupidity.
Yes, its referees fault you simpleton.
The excuse of the lazy.
The red card was serious enough that he was dropped from the national team because of it..
As for provoking him… have you ever played a team sport in your life? Players are provoked from a very young age, the better they are, the more it happens.
What planet are you from?
Have you ever seen a basktball and the trash talking that comes with it?
Reading that comment shows that you are clueless about what happens during games no matter the sport.
Go back to knitting.
Sort of reminds me of Gazza. I just hope he’s not as fragile in the head as Paul was/is. Good piece.
Excellent piece – been toying with one along a similar line for a while, but you beat me to it with aplomb. There’s room in football for a maverick or 2 for my dollar.
Very good piece, I agree with 100%. Football needs these characters.
[…] Balotelli is a fascinating player to watch. The Equaliser takes a look at the brilliant young striker who just can’t get his head on […]
That was one of the biggest jokes I’ve seen as far as red cards go. Having lived a year in Sweden, they are the worst and definitely planned to get him sent off. They are the most passive-aggressive bitches north of Estonia. With Tevez out and Dzeko looking like some hot trash…or a poor man’s version of the current Rooney, it’s about time for a Super Mario hattrick. I was honestly put off by him and his quick fuse…not so much the fuse at being fouled, but the whinning about dispossesions he felt should have been called fouls.
I absolutely love his attitude about goal celebrations; he doesn’t believe in them for strikers…expressing that it is their job to score goals. But honestly, as a blackman, he is making us look bad with his whole Rasheed Wallace act…he could learn a thing or two from Rasheed, and stop being so angry and smile at them, because wether we like it or not these refs are intimidated/frightened by an angry black man.
>they are the worst and definitely planned to get him >sent off.
Ok, this is where you officially go into loonie territory.
Yes, the Swedes conspired against him.
>But honestly, as a blackman, he is making us look >bad
Why?
Does every black man represent his race of 2-3 billion?
Do you feel that every black rapist, killer, drug dealer in countries all over the planet represent you just like every white rapist, killer, soldier represents every white people.
There are good people and idiots of every race, you are not responsible for them just because you have the skin tone.
Considering that there are black players in every country, the last comment is as pathetic as the rest of your tripe.
[…] Mario Balotelli: The glorious protagonist. [The Equaliser] […]
[…] Mario Balotelli: The glorious protagonist. [The Equaliser] […]
I get the playing the devil’s advocate angle.
And there is quite a bit of truth to what you say.
Personally, I love the characters of sport, the iconoclasts and the people who are not just drones (lets face it, footballers are usually not the most complete human beings due to the fact that most of their formative lives have all been about football).
But you take it a bit too far.
There is something called accountability that has to come in play in a team sport. Problem is that young exceptionals arent usually held accountable. Anything that goes wrong is usually sweeped under the rug because the talent is too tantalizing.
That is not just him but young athletes in every sport.
>Like Puff Daddy, Balotelli didn’t shoot anyone, so why not just let >Mario get on with being Mario?
If Mario was a sprinter or a tennis player or any solo sport, Id agree with you but football is a team sport, you can not let players do that.
A player who rips his jersey and throws it on the floor cant be told ‘Ahhh its ok…he’s just being Mario.’
The Inter players, not just Matarazzi but respected elders like Stankovic and Zanetti had repeatedly warned that certain behaviours are not tolerated at clubs … by the players themselves. Its part of being a professional, of being a champion.
When you have problems with coaches, there is always someone to say that its all their faults but when your own teammates/captain/leaders have to constantly call you out, maybe its not them but you.
I dont think youre that clueless that you truly believe that last paragraph. Controversy is the lifeblood of blogs, it drives hits.
I get it.
But there is a big difference about being a personality and being someone who thinks that rules are different for them.
Your entertainment is fine as long as it doesnt interfere with the team.
Their job is to entertain you on the field, the rest of the drama is for jackoffs like Perez Hilton.
If a coach tells a player to play on the right but the player insists staying on the left because the cameras are there, you might find it entertaining but it would be bad for the team.
The more I think about it, the more I know what the last paragraph
is about. I appreciate analytical thought, I like people who write challenging things. Your line was more around the lines of the 4yr old who says FUCK!! really loud so as to get a reaction from his parents.
It also ruins anything else semi-intelligent you might have written.
Editing, editing, editing is not the way of the blogs.
[…] Mario Balotelli: The Glorious Protagonist – Chris Mann praises one of the English game’s most unique characters […]
Nice Article.
Reminds me of what Gabby Marcotti was saying about Super Mario this week: “The guy just can’t win!”
Balotelli’s latest crucifixion over his dream day with Ronaldo was actually taking from a satirical Italian comedy show where they basically kept hounding him, asking “why are you so weird?”, “who’s your favorite footballer?”, etc.
While Balotelli clearly has problems with his temper and composure on the pitch and off it he certainly isn’t the basket case that some of the media would like you to believe.
[…] week, the ever excellent The Equaliser blog posted a story contending Mario Balotelli is compelling as a dramtic protagonist in football (go read it, I’ll wait). The argument is well made and identifies my own enjoyment in […]
Football needs characters for sure and I don’t mind a bit the off field stuff and negative publicity. But it would be good if he actually did live up to the “brilliant footballer” tag – only fleeting evidence of this so far, especially when the fee and wages are taken into consideration.
A bit suprerisd it seems to simple and yet useful.
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