Balotelli ahead of FA Cup final

ity fans taught Mario Balotelli how to smile on a football pitch – and now he wants to repay them at Wembley. The enigmatic striker was the subject of much puzzlement – and some hostility – for his sullen response to hitting the back of the net earlier in the season.

The turning point came in the FA Cup semi-final against United, when Yaya Toure swept a shot through Edwin van der Sar’s legs. Balotelli hurled himself into the wild City celebration, almost forgetting himself.

But he says that it was the sight of the sky-blue half of the stadium going into a frenzy which swept him along.

“The semi-final was a big moment and I understood that it was very important,” said Balotelli, who showed a whole new side to his character during a visit to St Ann’s Hospice, Heald Green last week.

Crazy

“When Yaya scored the goal I saw the fans going crazy and I was happy for them. I was also happy for the team and I enjoyed the celebration.

“The idea people have of me is not correct. Absolutely not. I am shy.

“I like to have fun. I like to do what normal 20-year-old guys like to do. I am just me. Normal.”

Balotelli has been a newspaperman’s dream since his £24m signing from Inter Milan last summer.

A car crash, red cards, restaurant rows, dart-throwing, training-ground fights, daft chicken hats and attitude – he is never more than six feet from another controversy.

He has been described as a ‘bad boy’ although he has never come close to hurting anyone. ‘Cheeky kid’ would be a closer description, although the people he charmed during a visit to the Heald Green hospice  might even baulk at that description.

Words like ‘charming’, ‘polite’ and ‘lovely smile’ were used – and when he sat down afterwards with some of the most hard-bitten journalists in the country, he impressed them with his honesty, forthrightness and intelligence.

“People tell me some of the things that are said about me and many times I have to laugh because these things just aren’t true,” said the Italian.

“When you are famous people want to talk about you. But sometimes what is said isn’t true and the people who know me know that. They know I am normal.

“It was the same in Italy and things haven’t changed since I came here. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I do things that are a little bit different.

“Maybe they expect me to do things differently because I am a footballer, but I say again that I am only 20 years old and sometimes I like to do things that guys my age do. In Manchester I like to go to Dukes – just like every other young guy in the city. That is normal for someone my age, but maybe not normal for a footballer.”

“When I lose my temper it is because I decide to do it – because I control myself,” he said. “If, sometimes, I have an argument with somebody it’s because I want to. I very rarely lose my temper. If I do something it’s because I want to do something.

“I don’t have to lose my temper. I have to think about the game and to try and score or help someone else score.”

Speculation has been rife that Balotelli will quit City at the end of the season and head back to Italy, homesick. But he dropped the biggest hint yet that he will still be here.

“Next year, I think my friends will come over and it will be easier – they have already been here,” he said. “My mum came over for one week and my sisters and brothers also. I think my family will move here.”

Doubts remain, however, about Balotelli’s sometime strike partner Tevez, who will sit down with City officials after the end of the season to determine his future.

That would place new pressure on Balotelli, who hasn’t scored since March 2. But he is not even contemplating life without Tevez at the moment.

“It’s better we score together, he said. “I can score ten goals, he can score ten goals. I’m not selfish, I just want to see my team win. If you want to win something, some trophies for yourself, you have to make your team win because you cannot win on your own.”

Now Balotelli can wash away all the negative stuff surrounding him this season by becoming the Wembley hero, the man who scores the winner and ends 35 years of hurt. But he is not interested in individual glory.

“I want to win it and to win it I must be positive, I don’t have to be the hero,” he said.