Mario Balotelli reportedly fired by Brescia — his hometown club

A frequent goal of racist abuse and sometimes surrounded in controversy, Mario Balotelli’s nomadic profession has taken one other radical flip. The former Italy striker was reportedly fired by his hometown membership for failing to report back to coaching because the Italian soccer league prepares to renew from a three-month break amid the coronavirus pandemic. Local media reported over the weekend that Brescia proprietor Massimo Cellino had his authorized crew ship a dismissal letter to Balotelli to terminate the participant’s multi-year contract “for just cause.”

“I thought as the captain of his home city’s team he would have done more,” Brescia coach Diego Lopez instructed the Gazzetta dello Sport. “He should have and could have done more. It’s too bad. But everyone controls their own destiny.

“He chose one path and the team has taken a different path,” Lopez added. While Balotelli reportedly excused himself from coaching by presenting a physician’s word saying he wanted to take every week off for abdomen troubles, the membership had already had sufficient of him.

Lopez detailed how Balotelli didn’t participate within the crew’s on-line coaching regime through the lockdown, and that on the few days when he did present up for observe not too long ago, his bodily conditioning was missing. “He’s not at the same level as the other players. That’s why he’s been training on his own,” Lopez mentioned.

When Balotelli signed final August with Brescia — the town the place he grew up together with his adoptive household — it was an emotional homecoming for a participant who has jumped backwards and forwards between the Italian, English and French leagues all through his profession. “This is my city. I can give so much more here,” he declared then.

But with solely 5 targets in 19 Serie A matches, Balotelli’s keep at Brescia has made extra headlines for the racist incidents he has needed to endure than his performances. During a sport at Hellas Verona in November, he grew so pissed off by monkey chants from the house followers that he interrupted play by angrily kicking a ball excessive into the stands after which threatened to depart the sphere.

The incident in Verona sparked a nationwide debate over racism in Italy. Still, Balotelli — who’s black and was born in Italy to Ghanaian immigrants — was once more focused by discriminatory chants throughout a match at Lazio in January. Last week, Balotelli posted an anti-racism tribute on Instagram following mass protests in opposition to police brutality and racism throughout the United States over the killing of George Floyd, a handcuffed black man, in Minneapolis on May 25.

The Instagram put up contained an image of Balotelli kneeling on one knee with a black glove over his proper fist raised to the sky. Accompanying hashtags mentioned “#saynotoracism, #blackpower, #restinpeacebrother and #GEORGEFLOYD.”

While neither Brescia nor Balotelli have made any official statements over the striker’s standing with the crew — and each events didn’t reply to requests for remark — the case is probably going headed for an arbitration panel and will take weeks to resolve.

In the meantime, it appears nearly sure that Balotelli gained’t be suiting up when Brescia resumes taking part in on June 22 at Fiorentina. With the membership in final place, dealing with nearly sure relegation and now lacking its most emblematic participant, the crew’s solely supply of motivation is likely to be that Brescia was among the many cities hardest hit by the virus in Italy.

More than 15,000 folks have examined positive for COVID-19 in Brescia and its surrounding province, which is positioned within the Lombardy area the place greater than 16,000 folks have died from the virus. “There needs to be a lot of respect for what happened and for who really suffered,” Lopez mentioned. “We need to play for ourselves, for this shirt and for our fans, because that’s our job.”

Now apparently with out his job, Balotelli gained’t have the prospect to attain the 5 extra targets he wanted to achieve double figures for this season and obtain a bonus that might have doubled his wage.

Due to show 30 in August, time can also be operating out on Balotelli’s profession and his hopes of returning to Italy’s nationwide crew. “It’s up to him. He controls his own destiny,” Lopez mentioned. “But he needs a different mindset.”