Mario Balotelli may only be 33 years old, but his career has been quite the spectacle. After leaving Turkish side Adana Demirspor in 2023, he has been without a club, but he has recently been in contact with Brazilian side Corinthians. He has played for 11 clubs since his debut in 2006 and scored plenty of goals, but he won’t be remembered for putting the ball in the back of the net. No, Balotelli will be remembered for the weird and wonderful antics that he has pulled over his career.

Moving to Brazil

While it hasn’t happened yet, if Balotelli were to join Corinthians, then it would be one of the strangest moves in football history, especially seeing as he has been without a club for almost a year. The former Golden Boy winner has spent his entire career in Europe, but I wouldn’t have been surprised if he had joined an MLS club to finish his career.

The Brazilian league is known for its young talent and flair and while Balotelli has plenty of flair, he isn’t particularly young. Some former greats in the European game do end their careers in Brazil, but the majority of them are Brazilian, or from another South American country. Balotelli is Italian and is of Ghanaian heritage.

The air pistol incident

In June 2010 Balotelli, along with some of his friends, fired air pistols while in Milan’s Piazza della Repubblica. The square, located near the centre of the city, is a public garden area comparable to Soho Square in London. The police were called to the Milan square after shots were fired from a moving vehicle and arrived on the scene to find Balotelli and a group of his friends in an Audi R8 with an air pistol. He was released without charge, but it is not the only run-in he has had with police throughout his career.

“Because I am rich”

Balotelli joined Premier League side Manchester City in 2010 and brought with him his flair, bluntness and style. Just days after arriving in England, the striker was involved in a car crash in Manchester. He escaped unhurt, but his following conversations with police officers will go down in history.

It was reported that Balotelli was carrying £5,000 in cash on him at the time of the incident and when asked why he was carrying that much money in his back pocket, he simply replied, “Because I am rich”. Legendary.

Why always me?

On the 23rd October 2011, Balotelli scored twice in a 6-1 win for Manchester City against cross city rivals Manchester United. After netting his first goal, he unveiled an undershirt that read: “Why always me?” in response to the number of media reports questioning his character and reputation. The day before the match he had accidentally set fire to some curtains in his home with a firework.

Balotelli has denied a lot of rumours about his personal life, and the shirt was supposed to be in retaliation to the rumours that he described as ‘not nice’. It is not the only time he has used the phrase in his career though, as he used it in a tweet in 2013, as a response to a CNN interview regarding his transfer to AC Milan.

Does a postman celebrate?

One of Balotelli’s most iconic celebrations of all time came against Germany in the Semi-Final of Euro 2012 when he took off his shirt, flexing his muscles. The celebration is memorable in itself, but it is what Balotelli said before the game that made it go down in footballing history.

The Italian striker never really celebrated his goals prior to the Euro semi-final and he was asked why this was in the pre-match press conference, the day before the game. He replied: “When I score, I don’t celebrate because it’s my job. When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?” Iconic.

There are so many other honourable (or maybe dishonourable) mentions, such as the time he needed assistance to put on a training bib, or the time he was named as the second best-dressed man in the world by a leading New York magazine. He has really done it all, both on and off the football pitch.