Mario Balotelli : Man, Myth or Maniac

Contrary to popular belief Mario Balotelli can smile.   He is not the enemy of the state that the pundits and opposing players have portrayed him.  The fans of his opponents have him all wrong, so do some Man City fans.  He is just a 21 year old young man from Italy.  

Mario is the magician with the ball and he is paid to score goals.  He is sometimes raw, sometimes seasoned on the pitch, but one thing is for sure, you want him on your side.   There have been the crazy on field antics, so what.  He loves football.  He is willing to try just about anything to make the game interesting and win one for the club.   He has that cold stare that you want in your striker.

That cold stare has produced some great goals this season.  That cold stare will produce more in the future.  His skill set is so sublime you just cannot figure out how he had time to even think about what he was going to do.  He got sent off this week against Liverpool.  He didn't do anything to really warrant the cards to send him off, he was a victim of a perceived bad attitude and  nonchalant care about the game. Martin Atkinson fell victim to emotion by Liverpool players and fans instead of thinking about the right thing to do.

Mario is a man, who bleeds blood like the rest of us.  He breathes the same oxygen, and puts his boots on one foot at a time like the rest of us.  He is not Darth Vader, hell bent on destroying everything in his path.  He is more like Qui-Gon Jinn, an unconventional Jedi.  He is not some Greek mythical creature or a Grimm tale.  Mario is far from the Big Bad Wolf.  I have seen plenty on twitter chatting about Super Mario, some good, some downright awful.

The tweets coming from City fans run the gamut as well.  When he was sent off, some fans were calling him a waste, some saw the carding was wrong.  There is great expectation from him and the club as well.  The club has attained so much in such a short time and has drawn the ire from foes around the world.  There lays in some more bitterness towards City players.  So what should we expect him to be, a weak straggler or the go to guy ?   I will take the tough young man, after all, Mario will be Mario.  Expect nothing less, and he will always show you more.  

Note:  If you don't know who Darth Vader or Qui-Gon Jinn is, Google Star Wars.