Mario Balotelli is going home this season and it’s the best situation he could have asked for.
It has been a long road back to his hometown, but he could make it all worth it if he performs this year. I believe that everything is lining up for Balotelli to be the star we always thought he would be now that he is at Brescia.
Balotelli has always had issues with the media, who have gotten on him for every misstep throughout his career. He won’t have that issue at Brescia. As a team that was recently promoted to Serie A, they won’t be getting very much attention outside of Italy and the local coverage of Balotelli is just about guaranteed to all be positive. The city of Brescia will love the local kid coming home to help the team stay in Serie A. At this stage in his career he will also only be expected to accomplish so much.
Surprisingly, Balotelli has actually been at his best in recent years, after people started counting
More from Serie A
- Update on Leonardo Bonucci’s legal action against Juventus
- Romelu Lukaku and the betrayal of Inter Milan
- Report: Piotr Zieliński set to sign a new deal with SSC Napoli
- The man rumored to replace Kim Min-Jae: Who is Napoli target Robin Le Normand?
- Are Napoli finally Scudetto-bound? It sure looks like it
him out due to his struggles at Liverpool and in his last year at AC Milan. At Nice he scored 33 goals in 51 appearances over the course of his first two years, which was the best scoring rate of his career. He also scored 8 goals in 15 appearances in the second half of last season at Marseille. This leads me to believe that Balotelli is at his best when the pressure and spotlight are off of him. With those two teams he was put in situations to succeed without having to live up to a ton of hype. At Brescia he won’t have a ton of hype behind him unless he produces at a high level. We should see the absolute best of Mario Baoltelli at Brescia.
For Brescia, Balotelli represents a major positive. The first reason Brescia will benefit from Balotelli’s presence is the ticket sales. Small clubs like Brescia often struggle to sell out their stadiums when they first get promoted, but having a well-known player like Balotelli on their squad will help to draw local fans to their matches. It might make a huge difference for them financially, but with these small clubs, every dollar they can get helps.
Balotelli is also easily the most talented player that Brescia could’ve hoped to land this summer. While Balotelli hasn’t ever really lived up to the visions we all had when he starred at Euro 2012, he still possesses a ton of talent when he is motivated. If he shows up as even 75% of that player who excited Italian fans for month in the summer of 2012, then he will help Brescia to outperform anybody’s expectations for the squad. If he is still the player we saw during his two full seasons at Nice then Brescia will easily avoid relegation this season. I said in my Serie A power rankings that I believe Brescia will have a much easier time scoring than recently promoted teams usually do and that’s because I believe Balotelli will play at a high level this season.
Mario Balotelli could use a new start in Italy and Brescia needs to avoid relegation in their first season back in Serie A since 2010-11. These two are the perfect partners to deliver those goals for each other.