Picture Credit: Twitter/@FIFAcom
The legend of the enigmatic Mario Balotelli continues to grow as he smashed five goals in a single game for Adana Demirspor in the Turkish League. While playing against Goztepe, the Blue Lightnings registered a 7-0 win where Super Mario netted his five goals.
Demirspor was gifted an own-goal in the 25th minute and then was the start of the Mario Show. The 31-year-old then scored a hattrick before the end of the first half. Then in the 60th minute, he netted his fourth which was followed by one of Balotelli’s greatest goals in his career. The Italian striker received the ball outside the opposition box as he dribbled toward jockeying defenders where he performed seven stepovers before finishing with a rabona.
Mario Balotelli goes down in history as one of the greatest players who could never fulfil their potential because of various on and off-field issues. His former manager, Jose Mourinho had talked about how Balotelli could be one of the best players if he goes in the right direction.
The Portuguese manager said, “In football, you never know the future but I think at this moment he is with a big club, Milan. I suppose that they want to keep the best players and they want to keep the best Italian players.”
“He was already in English football. For sure I am not going to be his manager at Milan or at the Italian national team so I don’t think there is any situation in the future but he’s a good guy, he’s a good kid. He is a very young player, he’s very young. He started so young that maybe people now maybe think Balotelli is 27 or 28 but he’s not 27 or 28,” he continued.
“He was playing in the Champions League when he was 17, 18 and he come to City when he was 19, 20. He’s a kid, he’s still a very young kid. I think the best years of a playing career are between 27 and 31 - so he’s not there, but hopefully he goes in the right direction.”