Gerrard: ‘Balotelli won’t be a top player’

By Football Italia staff

Steven Gerrard believes Mario Balotelli ‘is very talented with the potential to be world class, but he’ll never get there’.

The Milan striker spent last season with the English midfielder at Liverpool, and while the LA Galaxy man appreciates Balotelli has talent, he does not see a way for him to become one of the world’s best.

The former Reds captain’s new autobiography is being serialised in the Daily Mail, and he discussed the Italian international after naming El-Hadji Diouf as one of his least favourite teammates.

“A few people have since asked me if I saw any comparison between Diouf and Mario Balotelli,” writes Gerrard.

“I’ve always said no. I’ve got respect for Balotelli; I’ve got none for Diouf. Balotelli can be endearing sometimes, and that’s never a trait that you would associate with Diouf.

“At least Balotelli could still make me smile sometimes, I have a small hope that, one day, his career might work out and he can prove his potential on a regular basis.

“In my last season, [manager] Brendan Rodgers came to me at Melwood [Liverpool’s training ground] one day in mid-August. We had a chat on the training pitch. He said, ‘You know we’ve missed out on a couple of signings. I’m basically left with no option but to have a bit of a gamble.’

“Brendan paused before he spoke again: ‘The gamble is Mario Balotelli.’ My instant reaction was, ‘Uh-oh.’

“I’d never met Balotelli but I’d heard all the stories about the indoor fireworks and [former Inter Coach] Jose Mourinho describing him as an ‘unmanageable’ player.

“I could see that, in the right mood, he was a quality footballer but the rest of his career seemed like a spectacular waste of talent. That was my opinion of Balotelli.

“But I also had to admit that, when he played for Italy, he seemed able to switch on his gift like he was snapping on a bright light.

“When he scored the winner against England in the 2014 World Cup a month earlier he showed all the movement which made him so difficult to mark at his best.

“I told Brendan that, up close to him on the pitch, you could see that he was a big, powerful guy. Brendan must have sensed my underlying reservations because he spoke a little more about why he thought it could be worth the risk.

“Brendan implied that Balotelli didn’t have anywhere else to go — and it seemed as if Liverpool would be Balotelli’s last chance to shine at a major club.

“He would be offered a strict contract. Any bad behaviour would be punished.

“I reminded myself that I had always allowed every new player to come into the club with a clean slate. Balotelli’s reputation tested that resolve but I tried my best to be open-minded.

“He made an immediate impression when we were doing work on our defensive set pieces and Balotelli said to Brendan: ‘I don’t mark on corners. I can’t.’

“I nearly fell into the goalpost. I was thinking, ‘What are you? Six foot three, and one of the strongest men I’ve ever seen on a football pitch? And you can’t mark on a corner?’

“Brendan was very firm. He said to Balotelli: ‘Well, you can now – and if you can’t then you’re going to learn.’

“That was the first conflict between Brendan and Balotelli, on day one, but the manager stood up to Mario really well. From that point, Balotelli started marking on corners.

“He made his Liverpool debut on August 31, 2014 away to Tottenham, and he did well. We won 3-0. He wasn’t outstanding but he worked hard and even looked like a team player.

“It would not last.

“Daniel Sturridge was injured 10 days later, while training with England. He would be out for many weeks.

“Suddenly the Mario gamble was in jeopardy - because I knew that Balotelli would simply not put in the work we needed from a lone striker.

“Everything became more tangled and more difficult. Away to Basel in the Champions League, Balotelli started the game and he was hopeless.

“After his promising debut against Tottenham he had lapsed in training and the subsequent games. His demeanour was very poor. I made up my mind pretty quickly after that about Balotelli.

“There was no friction between us. We got on fine. I still tried to help him and I kept looking for chances to praise him.

“But I could see Mourinho had been right when he said Balotelli is unmanageable.

“He is very talented with the potential to be world class, but he’ll never get there because of his mentality and the people around him.

“Balotelli’s always late, he always wants attention, he says the wrong things on social media.

“For me, he doesn’t work hard enough on a daily basis. You’re always fighting a losing battle with Balotelli.

“He does too many things wrong.”

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