Talented, powerful and clinical in the field, Mario Balotelli is also renowned for its escapades outside the green rectangle. The Italian striker hosted the Ligue 1 landscape with experiences in two France clubs: OGC Nice and Olympique de Marseille.
Under the supervision of Lucien Favre, Balotelli expressed all his potential, especially during an exceptional 2016-17 season where the Riviera club fought for the title with its neighbor, AS Monaco, and Paris Saint-Germain.
2024 Icon SportPatrick Vieira-Mario Balotelli, a stormy relationship.
The adventure in Nice nevertheless ended in pain. Favre's successor, Patrick Vieira, had much more fresh relationships with Mario Balotelli. The Italian striker has not forgotten this period.
Balotelli, his revelations on Vieira
In an interview with Sandro Sabatini, Mario Balotelli returned to her last months on the Côte d'Azur. With a name in the crosshairs, Patrick Vieira.“He arrived there and wanted to change everything, but we came from two excellent championships, even in Europe. We were strong. He changed and things went wrong ”.
And Balotelli to continue in detail: “At the beginning, I told him, telling him that we were used to a certain game system, but he did not agree and I told him that I would commit to doing what he wanted. But we played badly. Then he started to move me away. I went to see the president to tell him that if I had known before, I would have left and that I would have waited for December. The president did not want, and he ended up giving in: they fired me from the team and I left in Marseille ”. An even less fruitful experience in a Marseille team in reconstruction.
