Balotelli Watch - OGC Nice

EDIT: Now his watch begins at OGC Nice

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Both gifted, powerful & cocky play-making strikers with low work-rate. Controversy has followed both at every club they've been.

Ibra needed 12 seasons to finally become a legitimate World Class striker under Mourinho's guidance and an additional 4 seasons to have his first ever 30 goal campaign.

Will Balotelli follow the same career path?

Just......NO

Plus he's not half as talented as Zlatan.Calm down mate.

S wrote:Just......NO

Plus he's not half as talented as Zlatan.Calm down mate.

Mario is 10 years younger so there is lots of time.

Mario come to Arsenal please, he will become a real supper Mario legend.

Dare I say, Zlatan has a more serious attitude to football

Raptorgunner wrote:

S wrote:Just......NO

Plus he's not half as talented as Zlatan.Calm down mate.

Mario is 10 years younger so there is lots of time.

Mario come to Arsenal please, he will become a real supper Mario legend.

You will regret signing Balotelli.He's the next Cassano.And what Lex said.Ibra being lazy on the pitch might be true but he works really hard in training and very dedicated,same thing cant be said about Balotelli.And this ignoring talent of both players and imo there's a gulf in class between both.

yep, he's exactly the same kind of childish self-centered douchebag blindly worshipped by teenagers on the internet because he's "unique"

Yeah I can see the similarities. Except for you know the fact that Zlatan has essentially won the league almost every season in his career.

A proven winner and champion at the domestic level for every team he has played for and has recently entered his prime which is reflected in great performances at European and International level. He's never won the CL but you need a certain degree of good fortune to win that trophy and Ibra has usually been found wanting in that department.

Balo as talented as he is has never really showed that he has the mentality of a winner and a champion. I'm not basing this on his current performances with Milan as that is just unfair. He hasn't proved he's the real deal and there will always be questions surrounding his mentality but he has time to develop... or regress.

S wrote:Just......NO

Plus he's not half as talented as Zlatan.Calm down mate.

Ibra was a journeyman and a nutcase like Balotelli until his late twenties lets not rehash history because he's matured mate.

Apart from the 08/09 season he's only truly been World Class for the last 3 seasons .

I also disagree about talent. Balotelli is not as acrobatic as Ibra but apart from that he can do pretty much anything else he can.

How can you compare the two.... i mean i understand this is GL and peeps compare crap all the time.  But it's not even close.  Let's set aside the questions of competing and being a professional, which Balo has no idea about.  Just on pure talent, Ibra is at another level than almost everyone, let alone Balo who is the most overrated yet underwhelming player on the planet.  Ibra is a CF with AM skills at 1,95 meters.  There's not a single thing he can't do on the pitch and many things nobody else can.  Balo is a CF that doesn't even know how to play his position properly at all, let alone become an all-around player (which he doesn't have the instinct or skills for).  The only thing he has in common with Ibra is that he's a big guy and has a powerful shot... that's it.

che wrote:yep, he's exactly the same kind of childish self-centered douchebag blindly worshipped by teenagers on the internet because he's "unique"

While this may be an accurate description,atleast Zlatan is genuinely funny(that is what i like about him) and he delivers on the pitch consistently and has been since years.

Balotelli on the other hand is a plain liability on the pitch whether be it due to his temper or his low workrate.Plus he has zero personality outside  of football apart from the fact that he gets caught in one or the other controversy.

We can see he's trying to ape Ibra on the pitch atleast but he's never going to be one.I mean he cant even sort himself out at his boyhood club Milan,says it all.He's 24 already now and i dont know how he is going to mature suddenly,imo.

Ibra was never a nutcase... he just chased money.  Nobody ever wanted to sell him other than Barca.  He basically forced himself out everywhere to get a larger contract.  I mean he won a title every single year he played

Ibra chased money because his agent is Raiola lol

Anyway Balo has more in common with Adriano atm than Ibra.

Zealous wrote:Ibra chased money because his agent is Raiola lol

Anyway Balo has more in common with Adriano atm than Ibra.

Just stop.

Ibra chased money because he is greedy and need MOAR money...stop making ridiculous excuses, Che summed it up....Ibra fans will go on to some length to prove he is right despite him being total douche on many occasions. He is ''Unique'' , he has ''charisma''

The way he handled benching in Barcelon shows how unprofessional awful person he is, threatening ti beat up Guardiola

You guys say he won a title like he was important for most of those. A little context is needed.

Winning titles on by far the most stacked teams in the a League means very little or else he would have performed in Europe. I mean how long did it take him to even score a *bleep* goal in the CL knockout stages? Not even win a tie but score lol.

Out of all those League titles the only truly impressive seasons he had were 08/09 with Inter and 11/12 with Milan. Calicopoli, the lack of parity in Ligue 1 and being a non-factor at Barca make the remaining virtually worthless.

Balotelli has won 3 League titles and a *bleep* treble already in his career but apparently he's not a "winner" or a "champion".

Confirmation bias at work here.

Ibra is a better dribbler and much more skillful than Balotelli. They're different types of players anyway. Ibra doesn't rely on pace either.

Disagree Gil.

Zlatan was not a journeyman for such time. His time in Juventus under Capello, where he predominately played on the wing was excellent as he had an impressive goal return for a player of his position as this is not counting how well he did in Ajax, back when the Dutch League was more reckoned than it is now. His first season in Inter also was a success as his next two were without a doubt of a world class CF despite the creative AND goalscoring role he had in a team without ideas or service.

His Milan career also was fantastic without a doubt. No debating there.  

Yet people do not realize that Balotelli at the same age of 23 has been better than what Zlatan was at the same age whether for club or country. Balotelli IS indeed an all-round forward (on the ball) with his very underrated vision and creativity along with the ability to change the tide of the game when he is in the correct state of mind, as Prandelli and Allegri have consistently done with him.

Zlatan had his own fair share of problems similar to which were complaints about his attitude towards the game, off the ball movement and overall how languid he was towards situations. AGE is the only thing protecting Balotelli along with his propensity of talent to actually turn around how Zlatan did. What Balo lacks is the iron-hard street mentality of Zlatan and the fact that he will never become the magnificent leader than the Swede is.

I could not help but have the feeling that Mario with correct coaching in a top team would succeed beyond his pathetic attitude as we cannot rule out how we will succeed as similar (though far less questions) were made of Zlatan back in his years of more turmoil.


@MT: Balotelli does not rely on pace. Never has and never will.

The man physically threatened Guardiola and was a cancer at Barca yet Balotelli is the nutjob.

Yohan Modric wrote:Ibra is a better dribbler and much more skillful than Balotelli. They're different types of players anyway. Ibra doesn't rely on pace either.

Ibra has never been a great dribbler. Don't let that famous Ajax goal fool you.

I agree he's more skillful but not by a huge margin. Balotelli is capable of some moments of genius himself and has showed that at every club he's been at.

And since when does Balo really on pace?

Yeh Balotelli doesn't rely on pace, but Ibra would still be a top player even if couldn't run at all due to his ability on the ball.

Gil wrote:The man physically threatened Guardiola and was a cancer at Barca yet Balotelli is the nutjob.

justified by his charisma.


Love his football but hate his fans ridiculous excuses and double standards.

No he wasn't Arqi... Zlatan had already established himself as someone that could be relied on at 23. It was his third year at Juve under Lippi then Capello. I mean, can you imagine Balo surviving 3 months under Capello or Lippi let alone several years

sportsczy wrote:No he wasn't Arqi...  Zlatan had already established himself as someone that could be relied on at 23.  It was his third year at Juve under Lippi then Capello.  I mean, can you imagine Balo surviving 3 months under Capello or Lippi let alone several years

Sports Zlatan was questioned for his attitude within the same time-frame that didn't regard the fear of him not living up to his potential. Yes the case was not as extreme with Balotelli especially considering Allegri's underrated leadership (& Mancini losing patience with him) yet similarities exist. Balotelli is a known quantity when he keeps his head down and plays whether for Milan or Italia as that is why so many managers and us fans keep vehement patience with him despite his infuriating attitude.

Mario under Capello? Would either be a situation where Balotelli would be whipped into complete shape by Fabio or completely break-down under the pressure that man presents to his underlings. That would be an interesting prospect. Zlatan came out a new man.

Ibra:
Games Played/Goals Scored/Assists
Malamo:-
18: 26/12/0 0.46/game
19: 8/3/0 (Injured) 0.38/game
Ajax:-
20: 33/9/5 0.42/game
21: 42/21/2 0.55/game
22: 31/15/7 0.71/game
Juve:-
23: 49/19/4 0.47/game

Balo:
Inter:-
17: 15/7/0 0.47/game
18: 31/10/0 0.32/game
19: 40/11/0 0.28/game
City:-
20: 28/10/0 0.36/game
21: 32/17/0 0.53/game
22: 20/3/0 0.15/game
Milan:-
23: 13/12/0 0.92/game

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As can be seen, Ibra beats Balo in both goal assist counts in most seasons, as well as being an important fixture in his teams.

Balo looked like about to explode in Milan, but his performance this season just points out to him wasting himself. Ibra had very good stats for someone who was employed in the wing.

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Painting Ibra's seasons in everything but second Juve season and Barca as anything but class is ignorant to the first degree. Ibra was a main fixture in all of his teams while always being a clutch player in the league.

Also, its a myth that Ibra chases money, at least not more than anyone else:

Ajax-Juve: a natural move from a weaker a leauge to a stronger one.

Juve-Inter: Juve got relegated, and no young player stayed with them at all. Most player would leave at this instant.

Inter-Barca:After 3 years with them and dragging them to two titles, he wanted to join Barca for what he thought was a free CL.

Barca-Milan: He was not doing well at Barca, and Barca wanted him out, hence the transfer.

Milan-PSG: We particularly begged PSG to buy him from us as we looked to balance our books.

This revisionist look back at Ibra is really pathetic imo.

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Back on topic, Ibra was a unique talent that frankly is not matched by Balo's who is talented by himself. Also, Ibra has and still a tremendous respect for training and fitness as he actually rarely visits night clubs and such.

Balo could potentially prove many of us wrong, but he is not showing any serious inclination to actually use his talent.

both very similar except Ibrahimovic is twice the player Balo is..

also Mario has a shit personality, gets easily mad, low confidence, and quits easily.

@Gil,Zealous says he lacks the 'mentality' of a champion and he's right.He's not hard working,not dedicated,not consistent and definitely not a leader on the pitch.Just some occasional moments of genius and just for that has developed a cult following.Seriously how overrated he got after that Germany performance ?
And Balo's contribution to the CL win is just about equal to Borriello's contribution in our scudetto success

Dribbling doesnt alone means doing stepovers and running at defenders.Zlatan's close control dribbling is superb.I dont see none of those qualities in Balotelli.Only area where both can be compared is shooting technique and first touch otherwise Ibra wipes the floor with him in just about everything else.

Ibra definitely has had his douchebag moments like the Van Der Vaart incident,like mentioned,his beef with Pep and to a lesser extent that fight he had with Onyewu(I believe his douchebaggery is highly exaggerated) yet was always relied upon when it came to performances on the pitch.And that is why all his other antics are ignored and not crucified like Balotelli is right now.