The Balotelli Conundrum

July 25th, 2011 | by: elaine | Comments Off

If you were gone for the weekend, you probably missed another Balotelli nugget, his failed backheel goal for Manchester City in their friendly in Los Angeles:

It would be easy to chalk this up to him being young, prideful, trying to show his skills… if it was the first time. But this is just one more blunder in an incredibly long list of blunders, particularly for a player so young.

Everyone tries to explain away his bad behavior. The most popular excuse being that he is young, he will grow out of it. Or that he has had to endure so much racism and thus has anger issues because of it. Or because of the circumstances of his adoption and family. But I have always maintained that his extreme behavior, particularly when compared to other players his age, is due to more serious psychological issues that need to be addressed to prevent him from behaving his way out of what should be an amazing career for both club and country.

He is undeniably brilliant. Speed, strength, agility, technique, natural instincts and an innate ability and hunger to score goals. Anyone who has watched him on the pitch knows that he is every football fan’s dream.

Well, except for when he throws his team’s jersey down on the pitch in disgust after a win. Or throws darts at the youth team out of his window in boredom. Or cannot figure out how to get his bib on. Or decides to go exploring a women’s prison with his brother. Or when he fights with teammates in training. Or kicks an opponent in the chest in an EL match, gets red carded, and then confronts the opposition after the match. Or picks up other ridiculous red cards that put his team down a man for that game and leave him sitting the next. Or challenges his coaches or tantrums off the pitch when subbed. Or runs clean through to have an easy shot on goal, only to showboat and miss.

In April, Silvio Berlusconi was quoted as saying that Balotelli is not suited for Milan due to his behavior. When a man like that is calling you out for bad behavior, you know you are in trouble. So again the question comes up: Should he play for Italy? How long do we wait for him to “grow up?” Does his liability overshadow his talent or vice versa?

For me, football is more mental than physical. Which means that no, I don’t think Balotelli should play for Italy… at least not yet. Prandelli has drawn some lines in the sand regarding behavior on and off the pitch, now it will be up to him to keep his word. And I don’t envy him his decision. Watching Balotelli play is simply heavenly, even if it seems he needs to exorcise some demons behaviorally.

Viviano’s Misfortune

On a separate note, you may have heard by now that our number two keeper, Emilio Viviano, tore his anterior cruciate ligament in training with his club team. This injury is a 6 month+ recovery time, which means he is basically ruled out for Euro qualifiers, and thus may be ruled out for Euros. Our hearts and thoughts go out to him in wishing him a speedy recovery.

However, it also means that Prandelli will need to find another keeper to call up. I know a lot of people want Abbiati, given his current form, and perhaps, under the circumstances Prandelli will break his solemn vow of developing youth and fortify our nets with the tried and true. But if he does go looking for a younger keeper, who do you think he will call up?

Elaine is randomly on Twitter • follow her occasional tweets @ItaliaWCB