Mario Balotelli is on the hunt for a new club after the former Liverpool and Manchester City striker’s contract expired with Turkish side Adana Demirspor.
The 34-year-old, who won 36 caps for Italy and scored 21 Premier League goals during two stints in England, left Demirspor after a second spell at the Blue Lightnings, split up by a year in Switzerland with Sion.
He returned to Turkey on a one-year deal with the option for a further year, but Demirspor declined to take up the chance to extend his contract for the 2024/25 season and Balotelli has been left a free agent ever since.
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The transfer window came and went without any club deciding that they wanted to work with the controversial forward, even on a free transfer, but he can still be signed by teams even after the majority of deadlines shut at the end of August.
However, he won’t be heading to Kerala Blasters after The Times of India claimed that after the club were asked if they had any interest in the Italian, they did not pursue his signature.
Balotelli’s ‘status and disciplinary record’ were cited as factors as to why he was snubbed by the Indian Super League giants.
Earlier this year a video circulated on social media of Balotelli lighting small fireworks in the Demirspor dressing room, throwing them across the room while covering his ears, appearing to chuckle to himself during the antics.
Such incidents have become synonymous with Balotelli, after his Cheshire mansion caught on fire when fireworks were set off in the striker’s bathroom, just 36 hours before his City team were due to face rivals Manchester United in 2011.
He arrived at the Etihad the previous year from Inter for £22million and within days of joining he was reported to have been carrying £5,000 cash in his pocket. When quizzed by a police officer at the scene because he crashed his car, over why he had such a large sum on his person, Balotelli replied: “Because I am rich.”
He gained a cult following in Manchester, for his off-field antics as much as his goals, before returning to England with Liverpool in 2014. However, he scored just one league goal for the Reds in his sole season at Anfield, before spells at AC Milan, Nice, Marseille, Brescia, Monza and more recently Demirspor and Sion.
And now Balotelli is without a club in September, having been deemed ‘not a realistic target’ by Kerala Blasters, driving his stock down even further as the 2010 Golden Boy winner’s career is going out with a whimper.
