It shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone that Mario Balotelli isn’t a Jurgen Klopp type of player.
For a start, Balotelli’s inability to break into a sprint is a bit of a hindrance when Klopp requires players to press high up the pitch.
However, it turns out the Liverpool manager isn’t sold on the ‘striker’, currently on-loan at AC Milan from Liverpool, for more than just his lack of industry on the pitch.
Some managers, notably Roberto Mancini, felt it was worth putting up with Balotelli’s off-field antics in an attempt to coax the best out of him on the pitch.
However, a passage from a book on Klopp claims the German would never accept poor off-field behaviour from his players, and Klopp was turned off Balotelli following an incident in 2011, when the Italian threw a dart at a youth team player.
“Klopp extends this belief in the importance of his team to his refusal to mollycoddle his players,” Elmar Neveling writes in Jurgen Klopp, a biography of the Liverpool manager.
“When the subject of Italy forward Mario Balotelli, who while at Manchester City threw a dart at a youth-team player, came up, Klopp didn’t mince his words: if one of his players pulled a stunt like that ‘they would never wear this club’s shirt again. He wont get a second chance to make a mistake like that: ‘Look, you might be able to play, but I don’t want to see your face again. Not when we’ve got so many lads who are a joy to work with.'”
We doubt Balotelli will be returning to Liverpool any time soon.
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