Former Liverpool striker is back: the 34-year-old journeyman has landed a short-term contract with Serie A strugglers Genoa for the rest of the season.
Balotelli’s team spent 20 days securing the move. He will earn between €400,000 and €500,000 (approximately $433,000 to $541,000). Genoa announced the deal with a “Super Mario” themed announcement video.
Balotelli spent last year with Adana Denispor in Turkey, scoring seven times in 10 league starts (16 appearances). He was without a club for the past four months and will return to Serie A for the first time since the 2019-20 season.
The nomadic striker has accrued 38 Italy caps and 52 Serie A goals in a career dating back to 2007. Back then, he was a fresh-faced teenager breaking through for Roberto Mancini’s Inter Milan side.
Once upon a time, Balotelli was lined up by Liverpool as a key replacement for the departing Luis Saurez in the 2014 summer transfer window.
The Italian joined Brendan Rodgers’s side for £16 million ($21 million) and featured 20 times in his one season with the club, scoring just a solitary goal.
Considering he produced such poor results for the Reds, how did Balotelli earn such a pricy fee in the first place? As a teenager, the Italian was one of the most highly regarded teenagers in Europe under Mancini at Inter.
He earned a move to Mancini’s Manchester City in 2010 and played a key part in helping the Citizens win their first Premier League crown in 2012, assisting Sergio Aguero’s title-winning goal.
After a brief stint with AC Milan (and bombing out with Liverpool), Balotelli returned to form playing for Ligue 1 outfit Nice. He scored 18 league goals in 2017/18 – tied for his most ever in a club campaign – and returned to the Italian national team, now managed by Mancini.
So why is Balotelli joining Genoa? The Italian outfit sit 18th in Serie A with just six points through eight games, and manager Alberto Giordano was looking to beef up his depleted forward line.
The club loaned star striker Albert Gudmundsson to Fiorentina this summer and key offseason import Vithina – bought for €16.00 million ($20 million) from Marseille – is out injured. So too is experienced winger Junior Messias.
In their most recent 3-0 defeat to Lazio, Giordano started on-loan striker Andrea Pinamonti and midfielder Morten Thorsby up front in a 4-2-2-2. Talented but raw 17-year-old Jeff Ekhator featured off the bench.
Balotelli could immediately be in the mix for a starting spot. “I am pumped. I don’t want to talk much. I just want to get started,” he said on Monday. “I’ll give it my all.”
