With the recent news of Mario Balotelli leaving the blue half of Manchester to join Italian giants AC Milan, a lot of people have been left feeling the Premier League will never be the same. If not for his footballing ability then definitely for his antics of the field, Mario Balotelli has become a legend of the Barclays Premier League.
Mario holds a special place in the heart of City fans as he helped them to the FA cup in 2011 and then to their first league title in forty four years last season. Most people will have quickly forgotten that he provided the assist for Sergio Aguero's "Fergie time" winner subsequently handing the title to Roberto Mancini's men. Despite his awful disciplinary record during his time in the top flight, Mario has made a huge impact in a City shirt, helping the side to overcome the "noisy neighbours" tag they had been associated with by their red opposites.
Sir Alex Ferguson was made to eat his words when he declared Manchester City wouldn't win the title in his lifetime. The Red Devils suffered a humiliating defeat at Old Trafford and it was the Italian international who opened the scoring in City's 6-1 thrashing of their neighbours before revealing the now world-famous "why always me" shirt.
Mario had been playing with fireworks inside his own home and this resulted in setting his bathroom alight, just a few days before the big derby with United. Balotelli, as a result of his actions, was made the face of Manchester's firework safety campaign, not the first person you'd want to represent safety when handling fireworks.
Super Mario has also notched up almost £10,000 in parking fines and has seen his car imported on 27 occasions. Hardly the actions of a role model, but the love affair with the Italian striker is something we didn't want to come to an end and it continued with Mario continuing to dominate the headlines throughout his spell in Manchester.
When moving to the club, Balotelli must have taken in the culture and sporting heroes a little too seriously. Emulating Manchester City fan, Ricky Hatton, Mario has been involved in training bust ups with numerous team-mates and more recently manager Roberto Mancini. It would be good to see Hatton in his prime against a hyped up Mario Balotelli that's for sure.
Roberto Mancini and Mario Balotelli, despite both sharing the same nationality, never really clicked and got along. Balotelli added to his list of bad decisions when he tried a fancy flick while clean through on goal in a friendly against LA Galaxy. He was immediately substituted and met with a furious rant from his manager.
People often question the amount of money footballers earn. Balotelli isn't scared to flaunt his cash and has been found to be carrying large sums of money on his person. More notably when he crashed his car, he had thousands of pounds in the passenger seat and when questioned on why by the police, he simply replied; "because I am rich". A response that surely only Super Mario Balotelli could have gotten away with?
Of all Balotelli's infamous incidents, "Bibotelli" has to be up there with the best. A footballer earning over £100k a week and he couldn't even put his bib on. The incident was truly hilarious to watch and summed Mario up beautifully.
The man once described by his manager as "mad" and "crazy" has one of the worst disciplinary records the Premier League has ever seen. He wracked up an outstanding 4 red cards in his short spell in Manchester and this led to a £200k fine for missing a substantial number of fixtures due to suspension.
AC Milan may be taking a gamble on Balotelli and Manchester City won't miss the striker. We, as neutrals, will however as we love to see what Bibotelli has been up too. Whether it be spending a fortune in a nightclub or sleeping with the Wayne Rooney hooker, we love the sheer madness of Mario Balotelli.
In truth, Mario will not be remembered for his natural footballing talent, as hen was rarely on the pitch due to suspension anyway! Super Mario will however, be remembered for his idiotic behaviour that somehow made him a genius. He will be missed by Manchester City fans for his contribution to their trophy cabinet, but for his talent there is a lot of immaturity and the City fans sure as hell won't miss that.
It has been great and it would have been great to see more incident filled years from Mario in the top division in England. Unfortunately we are left to watch the brilliantly, well, silly millionaire footballer on the red button during Sky Sports Champions League coverage, or on ESPN.
Without a doubt, Mario Balotelli has drawn more face palms, head shaking, tutting and laughter than any Premier League player to date. Thanks for the memories, Super Mario Bibotelli.
