Newcastle United reportedly missed out in their attempts to bring Mario Balotelli back to the Premier League – he left Nice for Marseille instead.
Newcastle United fans were not too impressed when reports broke via The Mirror that Mario Balotelli was being lined up for a move to St James’ Park.
The report claimed that the former Manchester City and Liverpool striker had been ‘offered a Premier League lifeline’ by The Magpies with Nice deciding to terminate his contract. But was Balotelli welcome on Tyneside? It didn’t seem like it.
The maverick Italian could score 80 goals in a single season and that still wouldn’t make people forget about his remarkable back catalogue of disciplinary issues and bizarre flash points. One Newcastle fan claimed he would be twice as unreliable as the famously firebrand Aleksandar Mitrovic.
But Balotelli, as ever, remains tantalisingly unpredictable. After failing to score a goal in a disastrous first half of the season for Nice, many expected him to flop at Marseille – the club he eventually joined on a free in January.
The cynics could hardly have been more wrong. The 28-year-old has scored five goals in six Ligue 1 starts in Marseille colours, the most recent coming in Sunday’s 1-0 win against, you guessed it, Nice.
In Marseille, Balotelli appears to have found a fan base who appreciates his ‘unorthadox’ style. He will forever go down in club folklore for his scissor kick goal against St Etienne, not just for the magisterial nature of the finish but for his celebration – streamed live on Instagram.
Newcastle fans were wrong to write Balotelli off. We all were.
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