Mario Balotelli has quickly become a household name with football fans across the globe, although with some, he is known more for his temper troubles rather than his footballing ability. In the past few weeks, reports have linked Balotelli with a move to North London, with both Arsenal and Tottenham interested. Such interest led to the AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani announcing that the Italian forward is for sale, with a fee of €25-30million being enough to see the former Inter striker part ways with the club he left the Premier League for 18 months ago.
Balotelli is an out-and-out striker, with the ability to control a long pass or a through ball and gracefully produce the end product. At just 22, he already has 88 career goals to his name in 202 professional appearances, including 18 for a Milan side who struggled to finish in the top half of the Serie A table after an abysmal season. He also has 31 caps for Italy, a nation which he adopted through living with his adoptive parents in Italy as a child. Undobtedly, his best moment for the national side was his Man of the Match performance in the semi-final of Euro 2012, in which he scored the two goals to help Italy reach the final, where they eventually lost 4-0 to Spain. He has 13 goals in total for the Italian national team, his most recent coming in Italy's previous World Cup match, when Gli Azzurri beat England by two goals to one.
One thing that Balotelli would offer Arsenal should he join, is some much-needed pace in the attacking third of the field. Olivier Giroud, although a great goalscorer for the Gunners, struggles for pace and in some cases, finds it difficult to outmuscle the opposition players marking him. As he is over 6ft tall, Balotelli is also known for his aerial presence, something which Giroud uses to make up for his other lacking skills. A thunderous shot and a fantastic ability to create and score goals from dead-ball situations are the two most prominent features of Balotelli's game. He has been touted by fans as one of the greatest penalty takers in world football, having missed just one penalty, when Pepe Reina stopped his shot in September last year.
Balotelli's stats compared with Olivier Giroud (Stats via Squawka)
Despite playing predominantly as a striker, Balotelli has the ability to play in a slightly deeper role than his usual attacking self. This was evident in the final game of the 2011-12 season, where Balotelli sat back and created chances rather than taking them himself. He played the ball through to Sergio Agüero who scored the winner in a dramatic and thrilling end to the season, in which Manchester City won their first Premier League title.
I defend him always because Mario is a good guy, but if he doesn't change in the future he can lose all his talent
All of his talents on the field are almost overshadowed by his antics aside from the football matches that has seen him become better known. In his career, he has been labelled by some as a player who has a lot of potential to become one of the greats in modern football, but his attitude, poor discipline and immaturity as a football lets him down massively. His former manager Roberto Mancini was one of those, saying that if he were playing with him, he would have punched him in the head. The two came to loggerheads at a training session in January 2013, an incident which spelled the end of his time at the club, leaving for Milan just 3 weeks later.
All in all, Balotelli is a striker who possesses such magnificent potential, and while he remains young, he has already proven himself on the big stage, and may have also done enough to prove himself to Arsène Wenger and Arsenal. The Gunners are set to offer him a three-year deal worth around £180,000 per week, and it remains to be seen if Arsenal get their number one target.
