Mario Balotelli’s brutal prank on Micah Richards made his first meeting with Fiorentina chief VERY awkward
MARIO BALOTELLI hilariously stitched up former team-mate Micah Richards by convincing him to call his new manager a “f***ing d***head”.
Richards, 35, left Manchester City for a loan spell at Fiorentina in 2014 as he sought more game time.
But his lack of Italian was worrying him as he prepared to meet head coach Vincenzo Montella.
As a result, he asked ex-Man City striker Balotelli for some advice as an Italian native.
However, the forward, who was at Liverpool, ended up doing the exact opposite as he created an incredibly awkward scene.
Speaking on The Rest Is Football podcast, Richards explained: “I went to Fiorentina on the last day of the transfer window and obviously I don’t speak Italian – I’ve got ‘Si’ – yes, basically.
“Like the absolute idiot that I am, I spoke to Balotelli to say ‘What should I say when I’m greeting someone?’ Because he’s normally good.”
Richards then proceeds to explain how he went up to Montella and opened with the X-rated phrase.
This left fellow podcast hosts Alan Shearer and Gary Lineker in stitches.
Richards continued: “That was the first time I’ve told this story because I’m thinking ‘Should I tell it? Should I tell it?’
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“I’ve gone up to the manager and called him a f***ing d***head. What an idiot.
“You know what, why didn’t I just check? You can just Google it. For some reason, I just believed Balotelli. He set me up, he got me a kipper.
“And to be fair to Montella he just started laughing.”
Richards played just 19 times for Fiorentina during a campaign which saw them finish fourth in Serie A – qualifying them for the Europa League.
He then returned to England and signed for Aston Villa.
Richards retired in 2019 at the age of just 31 and is now a regular pundit on Sky Sports.
On the weekend, he stepped in to defend colleague Roy Keane after a fan allegedly headbutted the Manchester United legend.
Meanwhile, Balotelli is still playing having had spells with the likes of AC Milan, Nice, Marseille, Brescia, Monza, Adana Demirspor and now Swiss side FC Sion.
His last game for the Italian national team, where he scored 14 times in 36 matches, came in 2018.