Summary

Mario Balotelli was once touted as the next Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo.

For all his talent, many issues – both on and off the pitch – stopped him from reaching his full potential

Despite many ups and downs, Balotelli still achieved plenty, notably winning the 2010 Golden Boy.

Once upon a time, barely a week would pass without Mario Balotelli making headlines. Sometimes it was for good reasons, with his undoubted natural talent often shining through on the football pitch. Other times, however, his off-field antics took centre stage.

Having played for some of the biggest clubs across Europe, such as Inter Milan, Manchester City, AC Milan and Liverpool, it's fair to say the Italian has achieved plenty. And yet... well, on the other side of the coin, you can't help but feel as though there was a whole lot of potential there which fans never quite got to see.

The 35-year-old now feels like an icon of yesteryear. After all, his infamous 'Why Always Me' goal celebration in the Manchester derby came way back in 2011. With that being said, here's what the mercurial striker has been up to of late.

A Supreme Talent in His Peak Years

Golden Boy Winner in 2010

Mario Balotelli

Balotelli emerged as a talented youngster with his local team Lumezzane, even earning an unsuccessful trial with Barcelona when he was still 15. He scored eight goals for the Spanish giants, but the deal collapsed as his agent demanded too much money. He ended up at Inter Milan instead and quickly earned a reputation for being one of the biggest talents in Europe.

He made his senior debut for the Nerazzurri just after his 17th birthday and made headlines not long after when he bagged a brace vs Juventus in a 3-2 Coppa Italia quarter-finals win away from home. Despite continuing to impress on the pitch, his second season with Inter was blighted by issues off the field. Manager Jose Mourinho dropped him from first-team action for a while, accusing Balotelli of showing a lack of effort in training. He was also the subject of racial abuse, with Juventus punished on multiple occasions for their hateful chants directed at the teenager.

Amid all these distractions and difficulties, he still delivered 43 goal contributions in 83 games for Inter before sealing a move to Manchester City in 2010. He took the number 45 shirt in England, which he also wore at his former club (and many others in the future), as four and five add to make nine, which is a striker's main number.

His time at the Etihad went fairly well, as he won the Golden Boy in 2010 and then helped win the Premier League in 2011/12. Interestingly enough, the only league assist of his entire stay in England just so happened to be the pass that teed up Sergio Aguero for his famous winner against Queens Park Rangers. But, as in Italy, his attitude was questioned at times, leading to his exit in January 2013 – although not before he damaged his relationship with Roberto Mancini badly in pre-season when he was substituted off immediately after inexplicably attempting a trick shot at goal and failing miserably.

Key Statistic: Mario Balotelli picked up one assist in 70 Premier League games – it set up Sergio Aguero for his winner against Queen Park Rangers.

Controversially, he moved to San Siro rivals AC Milan and started brightly as he scored twice on debut, and then grabbed two more in his next two matches. He ended the season with 12 goals in 13 games and then racked up 18 in all competitions the following campaign. This led to a move to Liverpool where he flopped for the first time in his career, picking up more yellow cards (seven) than goals (four) in his 28-game stint at Anfield.

A miserable season in England saw him loaned back to AC Milan for a year and when he returned from that spell away, new Reds' manager Jurgen Klopp decided he wanted nothing to do with the Italian. And so Balotelli was sold to Nice, thus signalling the end of his career playing for a top-tier sid

Mario Balotelli

No conversation about Balotelli is complete without addressing that ever-so-large elephant in the room. His discipline, or lack thereof, has often been a talking point throughout his career. While he was at Man City, manager Mancini tellingly gave a warning about his attitude in the same breath as he compared him with the very best, saying: "Sometimes he doesn't understand how important his job is for his life.

"I hope for him that he can understand this quickly, because now he is 22 years old. As a player, he could be like Cristiano [Ronaldo], [Lionel] Messi, if he understands that to be like this you should work hard.

"Your mind should be always on your job, not for the other things that are not important. I am very sorry for him for this. He can have everything, be one of the best players in the world."

Those words proved to be pertinent as the Italian failed to ever really get the balance right in his career. The forward summed that up best with his infamous 'Why Always Me' shirt worn in the Manchester derby of 2011. The day before the game, when missing around with friends, he'd accidentally set fire to part of his house after letting off a firework indoors. That didn't affect his performance against Manchester United, at least, as he inspired City's biggest victory at their neighbours in 22 years, scoring twice in a 6-1 thrashing. He would later explain his shirt was aimed at "all the people that just [were] talking bad about me and [would] say not nice stuff about me".

Beyond just that, his time in England drew media attention for many other notable events. For example, he was involved in a car crash just days after joining Man City, threw darts at a youth team player during a training ground prank, and was questioned by a police officer as to why he had £5,000 cash on him, to which he simply replied: "Because I am rich."

In his native Italy, it's a familiar story of regular mischief as he and some friends once fired air pistols in the open in Milan's Piazza della Repubblica. He was also photographed in the company of two noted Mafia mobsters, and was once questioned by Italian police after driving into the grounds of a women’s prison.