Mario Balotelli was a ‘pleasant surprise’ for Roberto Mancini’s assistant Attilio Lombardo on the Italy recall. ‘He’s lost a lot of weight.’
There were eyebrows raised when Balotelli was named in the Italy squad for Mancini’s get-together in preparation for the 2022 World Cup play-offs.
Balo has rediscovered his scoring touch in Turkey with Adana Demirspor, finding the net nine times with five assists in 21 competitive appearances for the club this season.
Now that the three-day training camp at Coverciano is over, assistant manager Lombardo explained to RAI Sport how much SuperMario had impressed.
“He has lost a lot of weight, I don’t know if it was because he contracted COVID-19 or what,” said Lombardo.
“I hadn’t seen him in a long time, as it’s more difficult to track his progress now he plays abroad. I honestly did not expect to see him in such good shape, it was a pleasant surprise.”
Balotelli has 14 goals in 36 senior Italy caps, but has not played for the Azzurri since a 1-1 Nations League draw with Poland in September 2018.
His last goal was in a 2-1 friendly victory over Saudi Arabia in May 2018.
Curiously, that was also the debut of Balotelli’s former Inter and Manchester City boss Mancini on the Azzurri bench.
Attilio Lombardo: «#Balotelli è molto dimagrito. Non mi aspettavo di vederlo in questa condizione fisica»
L’assistente di Roberto Mancini a Rai Sport. «È molto dimagrito, non lo vedevo da tempo. È stata una bella sorpresa» https://t.co/pnHYfG9sTp
— il Napolista (@napolista) January 29, 2022
IF he can pull his stuff together he can be very useful for national team… staff statement made me happy ,meaning at least he is trying… but only IF!
It was only a camp reunion. Loads to still prove over the last half of the season. Injuries will be a major issue as well. Mancini called up a ton of players including strikers. Much will also depend on the formation deployed. Doubtful that with little time to experiment that Mancini will deviate too much from his tried and well tested formation.
Balotelli had a lot of potential, if he can pull his head out of his butt he can still be the player we all thought he could be
He has already pulled his stuff together since his stint in France! He just gets discriminated against being one of the few black players to ever get called up for Italy!
I don’t like Balotelli’s playing style, he doesn’t hustle defensively and doesn’t play “for the unit”. We desperately need a goal scorer so if he can do the job without killing the cohesion and flow of our game, I’m all for it.
Every Italian and Italian fan is really hoping this works for Balotelli. Let’s gooo Balo 🔥💪🏻🇮🇹
afp1961. There is no tried and tested formation. That’s the problem. If there was we would have easily already qualified for Qatar like we should have in the first place.
The greatest mistakes that Balotelli made was going to play for Brecia, he had great success while playing in France but he mistakenly accepted an offer to play for a team like Brecia which wasn’t based in a well known city and he got discriminated while playing their. Its wasn’t because he was faulty rather the club president and his crew discriminated against him by cancelling his contract so unjustly. Its same thing they cannot do to their fellow Italian white player. If Balotelli had waited for a while after playing in Marselle he would have got a far better team than going to play for a low key team like a Brecia.
One of favourite strikers
Balo show them what u can do💪
Forza Azzurri 💪🙏🤞
So many wrong comments. Unreal.
Orji Offor,
Just stop. Balo considers Brescia home. He was released because he didn’t show up to Training and found it beneath him to go down to Serie B.
Eddy,
Wrong. Mancini wants the 4-3-3 for this group. It’s the formation he’s gone with for much of his tenure and this is indeed his trusted formation and the one he’s won with. Unfortunately because it’s become stale and predictable, and because the players have put in bad performances in many of the last Qualifiers, we find ourselves in a Playoff.