Suddenly, Mario Balotelli doesn’t seem quite so amusing anymore.
One could fill pages, and grateful newspaper hacks regularly do, with stories both real and surely imaginary about the insouciant playfulness of the striker whose goals are edging Manchester City ever closer to the English Premier League title.
A soccer millionaire with friends who let off fireworks in his bathroom, who has turned up for work wearing a woolly hat that looked like a chicken’s comb and who was filmed struggling with the simple task of pulling on a vest is going to generate headlines and laughs.
Photo: Reuters
This 21-year-old kid in a grown man’s body excels at both.
Ho-ho, Mario. The question — “Why Always Me?” — that Balotelli had printed on his T-shirt when City thrashed Manchester United 6-1 in October must surely have been a joke, because his high jinks make the answer obvious, but there is nothing even remotely humorous about a player who stamps on an opponent’s head. That would be an act of nastiness.
Does Balotelli have a streak of that inside him, too?
It’s a legitimate question after on Sunday he trampled on the right ear of Scott Parker, the Tottenham Hotspur midfielder whose job of breaking up opposition attacks with his solid tackles puts him in harm’s way and often leaves him face down in the grass.
The video replays looked bad, but one can never be sure that they tell the whole story. Only Balotelli can be certain whether he aimed to hurt Parker or stepped on him accidentally.
With City and Tottenham tied on two goals each and with just eight minutes left, Balotelli struck powerfully for goal. Parker bravely blocked the shot, the ball ricocheting off his thigh as he threw himself in the way of the City forward. In doing so, Parker also tripped, hit the deck and became entangled in Balotelli’s feet, sending the Italian tumbling, too.
As Balotelli was falling, his right foot kicked downward and thudded, with the studs of his boot, onto Parker’s head. Slow-motion replays clearly showed the sequence of events. It certainly looked vicious, but what the videos could not prove was whether there was intent from Balotelli.
City assistant manager David Platt said he had not seen the incident and so he wasn’t prepared to judge it.
“Different angles on TV can show different things,” he said.
Which is true.
However, professional players and their bosses have repeatedly shown that they cannot be relied upon for honesty in such situations. There’s too much resting on soccer — money, pride, results, loyalty to club or country, even jobs — and win-at-any-cost deceit is too ingrained in the modern game for those involved to confess on a regular basis when they or their players have sinned.
So when Real Madrid defender Pepe issued a statement to say that his stamp last week on the hand of Barcelona forward Lionel Messi was “an involuntary act,” we could only take his word for it, even if our eyes suggested something different.
Occasions when a coach acknowledges that a player was wrong and that a referee was right are sufficiently rare to be refreshing. That happened on Saturday with Wolverhampton Wanderers manager Mick McCarthy.
“I don’t have any complaints about the sending off,” McCarthy said after Karl Henry was shown the red card for kicking backwards into the Marc Albrighton’s chest when the Aston Villa midfielder was on the turf. “I’m not excusing him at all because he’s back-heeled him.”
More often, coaches see only what they want to see. Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp was quick to condemn Balotelli, even though he, too, cannot have known whether his stamp on Parker was deliberate.
“It’s not a nice thing to do, really, is it?” Redknapp said. “It’s got no place in football.”
Intentional or not, Balotelli was lucky. Referee Howard Webb had already shown him a yellow card for an earlier foul and he could quite easily have decided that trampling on Parker was sufficiently dangerous to warrant another, which would have sent him off. Webb, though, apparently didn’t see the incident.
Balotelli could still face punishment. The Football Association decided on Monday to charge him with violent conduct, giving him until this evening to respond. Because Balotelli has already been sent off once this season, he could be banned for four matches instead of the usual three if found guilty, depriving City of his goals as they seek to cement their lead of the Premier League, but that would be too late to change Sunday’s 3-2 scoreline.
Balotelli, of course, scored the winner, a last-minute penalty he took with the unflappable cool of Clint Eastwood.
As is his wont, Balotelli didn’t smile or celebrate, but instead stood rooted to the spot, arms out in the shape of a cross.
A lovable or mischievous rascal enjoying the last laugh.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
DOUBLES PAYBACK: Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Martens avenged their defeat in the quarters at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open against Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei on Wednesday advanced to the semi-finals of the women’s doubles at the BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells, California. Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium dispatched Demi Schuurs and Luisa Stefani 6-1, 6-4 to set up a clash against Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez for a spot in the final of the WTA 1000 tournament. Hsieh and Martens made a blistering start to their rematch after they lost to Schuurs and Stefani in the quarter-finals at the Qatar TotalEnergies Open last month, winning three games without reply at the start of the first set