Mario Balotelli May Be Headed To Lower-League English Football
Photo by Marco Luzzani/GettyIt wouldn’t be a summer transfer window without some sort of drama surrounding Mario Balotelli.
It’s become painfully obvious that Balo doesn’t have a future at Liverpool. The Reds were hopeful that a loan deal back to AC Milan would turn permanent. But as seems to happen a lot with the Italian target man, the season ended with team eager to see the back of him. His diminishing goal returns, high salary demands, and a reputation for being a poisonous influence in the dressing room make him out to be something of a losing bet for most clubs.
Which is why nearly every purported deal that surfaced in the media this summer has so far failed to pan out. Since the transfer window opened, Balotelli has been linked with moves to China, Turkey, the Eredivisie, smaller Serie A clubs, and even MLS. None of those moves happened. It’s setting up a potential worst-case scenario where Liverpool could be stuck paying Super Mario to sit at home and do nothing for a whole season.
With time running out in the transfer window, another club has appeared as a possible exit ramp for Balotelli. And that club is… Wolverhampton Wanderers.
Wolves have been out of the Premier League since the end of the 2011-12 season. They were then relegated to League One the following season but have since returned to the Championship. The club were bought by Chinese investors last month— part of an emerging class of owners from that country— and have made a return to the Premier League a top priority. Part of their strategy is to splash big for an elite goalscorer. And, apparently, Balotelli fits the bill.
Two more details make this story particularly odd. First, Wolves may have competition in Port Vale, who are currently in League One and have never played in the top flight (either the Premier League or the old First Division). And second, the person pulling the strings behind this supposed move to the West Midlands may be José Mourinho.
The story goes: Balotelli approached Mourinho about playing at United, to which Mourinho replied, “nah fam I’m good.” He went on to say that Balo should ply his trade outside the Premier League anyway. He floated the possibility of staying in England but dropping down a division, and that if that were something he was interested in that, he had contacts at Wolves he could talk to.
So is Balotelli going to take the Football League by storm? Who knows. Even if there’s some meat to the rumors— and that’s a BIG if— there seems to be this pattern of clubs withdrawing their interest in Balo after doing even basic due diligence. Super Mario is going to end up somewhere, because he can’t just retire, but finding that somewhere is always like pulling teeth. Balo still thinks he can hold out for £100k a week and Champions League football, even though his performance on the pitch and his reputation for dressing room drama has marked him as a toxic asset. He’s become something of a walking case study for the Dunning-Kruger effect, and the kind of money at play in elite European football has made clubs increasingly risk-averse. As has often been the case in his career, his capacity to present himself as an intriguing value proposition may depend in part on his ability to change his behavior— something which, historically, he has trouble following through on.
Any club who would take him on can’t just consider the move in purely financial terms. They have to consider whether they can afford to Let Balo Be Balo.