If you’re a promoted side and want to confirm your club’s relegation and guarantee a season’s worth of fall-out and controversy, appointing Mario Balotelli as captain is probably a good way of setting the balls in motion!
But according to FC Crotone president Raffaele Vrenna, that’s just what he’s going to try and do ahead of his side’s campaign in Serie A next term.
“I was asked recently about a player who needs to get back to his best and I believe that we could get Balotelli back to his best,” Vrenna said in Gazzetta dello Sport. “He has not yet shown his full value and he’s a heritage of Italian football.
“We would even be willing to give him the captain’s armband, and of course he would also score 25 goals.”
The maverick forward was a complete flop on Merseyside, and has further damaged his reputation on loan at AC Milan this season, scoring just one Serie A goal in 20 appearances – dogged by injuries and poor form.
As a result, our chances of recouping any significant for him in the transfer market have largely vanished, and it’s now just about getting his hefty wages off the books.
A move to a side that would guarantee Balotelli a starting spot, such as Crotone, would be good for his career, and perhaps the responsibility of skippering them would even help him – but a lucrative move to China where his wages would probably increase might be the more attractive proposition for the player who’s horribly wasted his God given talent.