“Balotelli, by the qualities that he has, he is one of the best around, but this is not enough,” Mancini told reporters.
Balotelli is one of the best around
Mario Balotelli has the quality of returning to international football but needs to do more for his club Brescia to earn a recall, according to Italian manager Roberto Mancini. Balotelli joined the promoted side too proudly at the beginning of this season, returning to the city where he spent his childhood. However, Mario only found the net five times in Serie A of this campaign and did not do enough to earn the challenge in the eyes of his former manager at Manchester City. “Balotelli, by the qualities that he has, he is one of the best around, but this is not enough,” Mancini told reporters. “He has to give more; he did nothing in Brescia, and he knows it. We hope that he be 100 percent, as in 2012 under Cesare Prandelli.”
Three appearances in five years
Some of Balotelli’s best appearances for his country came at Euro 2012, where he completed a joint top-scorer with three goals in the tournament to help Italy in the final. True, over the past five years, he has made only three appearances – with all three of these checkers, he returned in 2018. Mancini was preparing his side for Euro 2020, but since the tournament postponed until the summer of 2021, he hopes that the younger members of his team will have more time for development. “So many people died, and football became secondary.” Now we have a young detachment, and we can still improve.
“We would have a chance this year, but there were teams that were more prepared and started earlier or those who had already imposed themselves like France.” With an extra year, the guys will be able to improve by playing meaningful games, so in this sense, the team will improve. “But we have to watch the games, because with matches closer to each other, we may have less time to prepare.” We started a project that we can still improve, that’s why having more time will help us.”