Jose Mourinho kicked me off the team bus after a blazing row – he’s not an easy guy to deal with, says Balotelli
MARIO BALOTELLI has revealed that Jose Mourinho once kicked him off the team bus.
The pair worked together during their respective stints at Inter Milan, prior to Super Mario’s Manchester City switch.
Mourinho and Balotelli didn’t always see eye to eye – resulting in some heated rows.
Recounting his experiences with his Portuguese former boss, Balotelli told the Muschio Selvaggio podcast: “Mou is not an easy guy to deal with, much like me.
“One time before a trip to Catania, we had an argument on the bus taking us to the airport.
“He made me get off the bus and I had to return home with a car.”
Balotelli, now 32, is the first to admit that he made mistakes during his younger years.
But he feels that at times he has been unfairly singled out.
He continued: “I know that I made mistakes, but it is also true that the spotlight was always on me.
“Aside from my own character and the label of being a prodigy as a teenager, I think the status of being the first black player in the Italy squad also contributed to people always talking about what I did off the field.
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“I saw colleagues do some things, if it had been me…”
Balotelli is still going strong, plying his trade in Switzerland for FC Sion – recently captaining them to a 3-1 win at Grasshoppers, ending his own personal goal drought in the process.
He reckons there’s still plenty of life in his career yet, concluding: “I think I can play at least another four years at a good level.
“When I do retire, I’ll be happy with the path I have taken. I could’ve done more, but in any case I won everything.”
Mourinho, 60, once recounted overseeing a Champions League clash between Inter and Rubin Kazan – in which Balotelli was playing.
He said in 2014: “I remember one time when we went to play Kazan in the Champions League.
“In that match I had all my strikers injured. No Diego Milito, no Samuel Eto’o, I was really in trouble and Mario was the only one.
“Mario got a yellow card in the 42nd minute, so when I got to the dressing room at half-time I spend about 14 minutes of the 15 available speaking only to Mario.
“I said to him: ‘Mario, I cannot change you, I have no strikers on the bench, so don’t touch anybody and play only with the ball.
“If we lose the ball no reaction. If someone provokes you, no reaction, if the referee makes a mistake, no reaction.’
“The 46th minute – red card!”