1) Fireworks
Balotelli sets off fireworks in his Manchester mansion, causing an inevitable fire, thousands of pounds worth of damage and a full house evacuation. Brilliantly, he later becomes a fire safety campaigner.
2) Man United tweet
Balotelli immediately warmed himself to Liverpool fans by, along with the rest of the country, laughing at the fact Man United were walloped 5-3 by Leicester City at the beginning of last season.
3) Jose Mourinho red card story
“I could write a book of 200 pages of my two years at Inter with Mario, but the book would not be a drama – it would be a comedy,” Mourinho once said.
“I remember one time when we went to play Kazan in the Champions League. In that match I had all my strikers injured. No Diego Milito, no Samuel Eto’o, I was really in trouble and Mario was the only one.
“Mario got a yellow card in the 42nd minute, so when I got to the dressing room at half-time I spend about 14 minutes of the 15 available speaking only to Mario.
“I said to him: ‘Mario, I cannot change you, I have no strikers on the bench, so don’t touch anybody and play only with the ball. If we lose the ball no reaction. If someone provokes you, no reaction, if the referee makes a mistake, no reaction.’
“The 46th minute – red card!”
4) Why Always Me?
Bags the opener in a 6-1 demolition of City’s arch-rivals United in 2011, and reveals the now infamous ‘Why Always Me’ shirt – which the club’s kit-man ‘Chappy’ sepecially made him.
5) Allergic to grass
In a Europa League defeat for City away to Dynamo Kiev, Balotelli had to substituted after claiming he was allergic to the grass in Ukraine.
6) Bibliotelli
Balotelli can’t put on bibs. Like all of us at 5-a-side, he struggles to work out which holes are for arms and which holes are for heads.
7) Casino win
Following a Manchester casino splurge that saw the Italian £25k up, the generous forward gave £1,000 of his winnings to a tramp outside. Class.
8) Women’s prison
Mario and his younger brother Enock drove into a women’s prison in Brescia because they wanted to look around in 2010.
“Balotelli has apologised. He spoke in a low voice, he was a little embarrassed,” said the detaining police officer, who had to hold the pair for entering without a permit!
9) Super Mario Instagram post
Attempting to post a message of anti-racist positivity, Balotelli shared a meme of his namesake Super Mario – entitled ‘Don’t be racist!’. Sadly, it also included the text ‘grab coins like a jew,’ at the bottom. The striker was banned for one game by the FA.
10) The milk-run
Sent to the shops for a bottle of milk by his mother, Mario returns with a Vesper, a trampoline and Scaletrix. Standard.
11) Winding up his own supporters
Back in 2010 when playing for Inter Milan, Balotelli accepted a gift of an AC Milan shirt, before being snapped wearing it later on. Earlier this summer, he took to Twitter to support Raheem Sterling, despite every Liverpool fan on the planet being vehemently against the wantaway winger.
12) Training ground fight with Roberto Mancini
Perhaps nobody has tried to help Balotelli quite as much as his former Inter and City mentor Roberto Mancini, but the pair famously came to blows at the training ground – after Mario put in a nasty challenge on Scott Sinclair.
13) ‘Im shit!’
Balotelli answers a question remarkably honestly after an FA Cup final victory!
14) Why? Because I’m rich
Balotelli is pulled over by police, who search his car and find £25k in cash in his boot. Asked why he was carrying the money, Mario politely answered: ‘Why? Because I’m rich.’ Fair enough!
15) Doesn’t like the new Italy shirt
What should a footballer do if he doesn’t like his side’s new jersey? Simply wear the old one, of course. And this is exactly what Balotelli did in his country’s friendly clash with Uruguay in 2011. The cheek!
16) Penalty steal
With Steven Gerrard unavailable, vice-captain Jordan Henderson had been put on penalties by manager Brendan Rodgers during a Europa League clash with Besiktas last season. But this didn’t deter the Italian from totally ignoring team orders, taking the ball for himself and casually slotting home the penalty.
Daniel Sturridge and then Gerrard in the studio were not amused in the slightest.
17) Bullseye
While at City, Mario was fined £300k for throwing darts at youth team players.
18) THAT celebration
Mario doesn’t celebrate goals, so he claims.
“When I score, I don’t celebrate because I’m only doing my job,” Balotelli once said. “When a postman delivers letters, does he celebrate?”
But against Germany in Euro 2012, he bagged a world-class brace and posed topless in what’s now become one of the iconic Balotelli images.
19) The showboat
Playing for City in a pre-season friendly versus LA Galaxy, the striker, through on goal, outrageously tried a ridiculous trick – which even his own team-mates considered offensive to the opposition. He was immediately subbed.
20) The royal kiss
Balotelli claimed during the World Cup in 2014 that if Italy did England a favour by beating Costa Rica, he’d have earned a kiss from Her Majesty the Queen!
21) Car pool
Balotelli lent his Ferrari to Liverpool fans, so that they could drive it around a car-park last season.
(We could have included a host of other driving related offences – but this was our favourite!)
22) Chicken Hat
This:
23) The Pets
Balotelli adopted a stray cat hanging round City’s training ground, has two dogs named ‘Stevie’ and ‘G’, and a pig named ‘Super’. Wonderful.
24) Matching tracksuit and.. Lamborghini
Understandably with all of his media attention, Balotelli decided to go all inconspicuous with a camouflage Lamborghini and outfit to match.
25) Shirt swap
Liverpool were 3-0 down to Real Madrid at half-time in a Champions League group clash last season, but inexplicably, the forward thought a tunnel shirt-swap with Pepe was appropriate after the 45!
