Mario Balotelli again hit out at ‘stupid’ Zlatan Ibrahimovic, claiming he ‘went missing in big games’, while the Italian reveals his only regrets involve Inter, Manchester City and Liverpool.
The controversy erupted when Ibrahimovic was a guest on stage at the Festival dello Sport over the weekend, criticising his former Inter teammate Balotelli for wasting his talent and failing to take every opportunity that came along to make the step up in his career.
Balotelli responded with a photograph on Instagram of himself holding the Champions League trophy, which Ibrahimovic has never won, and tagging the Swede to make sure he got the message.
SuperMario spoke to TV Play today and continued to hit out at his old teammate.
“It’s strange that Zlatan attacked me so publicly without reason. I don’t care if he prefers Rafael Leao to me, it was a bit of a stupid comment,” said Balotelli.
“Zlatan has now created this kind of character around himself, where he identifies with God, so then he ought to pray to God. With the Champions League picture I just wanted to say that I played important games and maybe he went missing in some of them.
“I absolutely feel that Champions League trophy is mine. I didn’t think there was any doubt on that until today. When a club wins the Champions League, it is impossible to avoid giving credit to everyone in the squad. Marco Materazzi for example played very little in the Champions League that season, but you can’t say he didn’t win it.”
Currently in Turkey with Adana Demirspor, Balotelli denies Ibrahimovic’s assertion that he threw away every chance in his career.
“I made some mistakes, I could’ve dealt with my talent differently. It’s true Ibrahimovic always told me I could do better, but he’s not right about the rest. Perhaps I would’ve won the Ballon d’Or, I can say that for sure.
“I always had a stronger personality than Ibrahimovic, that’s why he didn’t cause me that much trouble, but his presence was constructive for me. I saw Materazzi as more of a big brother figure than Ibrahimovic.”
Balotelli even goes so far as to openly celebrate the Swede’s departure from Inter in the summer of 2009, which was a precursor to Jose Mourinho’s team taking the historic Treble.
“I will say Ibrahimovic’s departure helped Inter win the Champions League. Diego Milito was like King Midas, everything he touched turned to gold, while Samuel Eto’o is always decisive and I got on so well with Wesley Sneijder that we worked together again in Nice.”
When asked if he had any regrets, Balotelli picked three from his rather eventful career.
“I only have three. I would not have left Inter when I did, even if it was Rafa Benitez who pushed for my exit. I could’ve made history for the Nerazzurri.
“I also would not have left Manchester City and looking back it was a mistake to join Liverpool.”