Inter striker Mauro Icardi feels a kinship with Mario Balotelli. “He doesn’t care what people think, just like me.”
The Argentine spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of Sunday night’s Milan Derby, click here for a match preview.
Inter striker Mauro Icardi feels a kinship with Mario Balotelli. “He doesn’t care what people think, just like me.”
The Argentine spoke to La Gazzetta dello Sport ahead of Sunday night’s Milan Derby, click here for a match preview.
“Unfortunately I couldn’t play the Derby earlier this season, but I have no doubts, this is like a Champions League Final for us. We cannot get it wrong,” said Icardi.
“Milan have had worse problems this season, so I think they’ll be angry and fired up after the defeat to Roma. We need to be wary of them, especially as they aren’t all that far behind us in the table.
“I hope Balotelli plays as a lone centre-forward, as we’ve seen he is often isolated and forced to go deep in order to get the ball. It keeps him further away from the goal.”
Icardi is the ‘bad boy’ of Inter, provoking Sampdoria fans after his goals against Maxi Lopez, the man whose wife he is now engaged to.
“I celebrated like that on other occasions, but maybe at Genoa I enjoyed it more. If they jeer or insult me, they’re just doing me a favour. Since I was a kid that fired me up.
“I haven’t been writing on Twitter so much recently because I am focused on organising the marriage to Wanda. It’ll be on June 7 in a castle in Buenos Aires. We are public figures, so good or bad we attract attention, but I don’t think anything that big happened. I just do what makes me feel good.”
He feels a kinship with Milan’s own troubled star striker Balotelli, who recently engaged in a row on live television with Sky Sport Italia pundits.
“I honestly don’t know him, but from what I hear he’s a good guy. He doesn’t care what people think or say about him. In that sense he is just like me, absolutely identical.
“What do I not like about Balotelli? Perhaps at times he exaggerates with his behaviour. Not with referees, as everyone complains a bit to them. I remember his row with Roberto Mancini at Manchester City, as they nearly beat each other up on the field.”