Is Manchester City's Mario Balotelli misunderstood or is he really just angry?

Posted Thursday, July 21, 2011 by YAHOO Sport

For whatever reason, Mario Balotelli looks angry. Twenty minutes after Manchester City’s friendly match against the Vancouver Whitecaps during the second stop of its North American tour Monday night, the Italian striker arose from the makeshift locker room trailer donning a backwards black cap, a blue and black striped polo shirt and a blue Man City jacket tied around his waist.

With his head down and wearing a scowl across his mug, he blew off the throng of reporters hollering out his name before directly boarding onto the team’s bus. It is clear on this particular night that Super Mario, as he is referred to across the pond, wanted nothing to do with the press, fans and basically anyone within arm’s length.

Never mind that his team just defeated the Whitecaps in front of a reported 24,000 fans at Empire Field and the thousands more who tuned into ESPN2’s live broadcast. Or that the contest was considered a friendly - an otherwise meaningless exhibition that serves only to merely treat the Canadian audience to elite European soccer clubs. It didn’t even matter that his strong second-half performance helped orchestrate Man City’s comeback from down one to a 2-1 victory over the Whitecaps.

Some five minutes later, Balotelli re-emerged into the media mixed zone, only to grant a beat writer he knew from the UK a brief one-on-one interview that was conducted apart from the barricaded media, in a secluded area adjacent to the trailer. When the interview concluded, a team official quickly whisked the 20-year-old past the Canadian media back onto the bus.

Fans across England are well aware of the sideshow that has become synonymous with Balotelli. There’s never a shortage of adjectives to describe him. Fiery, arrogant, talented, inconsistent, standoffish, sensitive – it seems everybody has an opinion on the former Internazionale standout.

The British tabloids routinely feature Balotelli for his thirst for fast cars, his controversial fashion taste and his drama-filled love life.

Just this week, English dailies reported on Balotelli’s purchase of a Harley Davidson bike, which Man City manager Roberto Mancini quickly prohibited him from riding.

On the field, he tends to stand out even more. Crafty and deceptively quick with the ball, few defenders can keep up with Balotelli in transition. He is extremely dangerous when he’s within striking distance to score.

But his questionable attitude has been put into question, as he has had very public confrontations with teammates and coaches in the past year alone. And his inability to control his temper has made him susceptible to verbal abuse from hostile opposing crowds, which many times turn racial.

“Sometimes he needs to control his emotions, yes,” Mancini admitted to Goal.com following Monday night’s contest. “Mario is good player, but he's young and needs to improve as a player and as a man sometimes.”

Fans in Vancouver were able to witness first hand of the double edge sword that Mario has become. After sitting out last Saturday’s friendly in San Francisco with an illness as well as the first half in the Vancouver game, Balotelli proved his brilliance when he checked in at the start of the second half. His robust and aggressive style helped energize the City squad that seemed complacent and passive in the contest’s first 45 minutes.

But on the other hand, a little of Balotelli’s dark side showed too. Despite being a friendly game, Balotelli played with the same edge he would during an English Premier League match in May. On one possession Monday night, he appeared to cheap shot a Vancouver player with a trip and as the final minutes of the game wound down he was also involved in a brief scuffle with another Whitecaps member.

His teammates contend his passion on the field is more than welcome.

"I think he's here because he has some quality and he's shown today that he's a great player,” said Man City defender Gael Clichy. “We need him in top form because when he's like this he's unplayable. But of course he's young and I wish he would progress even more so he would be like an amazing player.”

Asked if Balotelli’s needed to improve his attitude, Clichy was quick to defend him.

"No, no, no, he's a great player and great man," he said.

Maybe Clichy is right and Balotelli is just misunderstood. Maybe he’s just a 20-year-old trying to find his way and will mature and open up as the years go on. Maybe there was an explanation for the hostile and cocky vibe he put off outside that Vancouver locker room. Perhaps he was still feeling sick from California or that he was too tired to talk.

But no matter the reason, the stigma around him still sticks.

Just minutes before he emerged from that locker room, a Vancouver reporter asked a delegated Man City media relations official if they could get a few minutes to ask Balotelli about the game he just had, his thought’s on the stadium’s pitchy field and his two cents on North American fans.