Mario Balotelli: Always Me

There are so many reasons to be fascinated by Mario Balotelli. Until recently, so few of them involved football.

Bought by Manchester City for a huge price tag, the Italian teenager arrived with a reputation of exceptional talent, ridiculous temper and a tendency to piss people off. Within a month of arriving, he had pretty much summed this up by scoring three brilliant goals, getting sent off for kicking an opponent, and crashing a £120,000 sports car.

The rest of the season followed a similar pattern, leaving observers to express a mix of anger, amusement, or genuine concern for the guy's sanity. Crucially, however, the on-field form was not good enough for most to tolerate it. After a high-profile bust up with the manager during the summer, involving a back-heel and an open goal, he seemed almost certain to vanish from the Man City picture.

Not any more.

Balotelli's fortunes, however, are not down to a change in lifestyle. In recent months he has, among other things:
Set his house on fire with fireworks
Got caught up in a money laundering case after visiting the Neapolitan mafia
Given £1000 to a homeless
Driven a young fan to school to confront a kid that was bullying him
Thrown a dart at a City youth team player
Failed to put on a bib

Is he a footballer, or Mr Toad from Wind in the Willows? Perhaps he doesn't even know.

As a professional, the only possible way to justify this kind of exuberance is to show some pretty terrific form. The the kind of form that Balotelli has displayed this season. Six goals in seven games, no red cards, and with today's performance in today's thrashing of Man Utd, the ability to play the role of match-winner on the big occasion too. At only 21, he is vastly ahead of most players in his age bracket, and already there are very few centre forwards of his ability in world football.

On scoring his first goal today, he revealed a t-shirt printed with the words 'Why always me?' The answer is, of course, that no other Premier League player would print their own t-shirt asking such a question in the first place.

However, the exciting development in Balotelli's career is that stunts such as these are becoming an amusing side show, rather than the main attraction. Slowly but surely it appears that, after 18 months, Mario Balotelli and the english game are finding a mutual love for one another. Which makes for a very bright and prosperous future indeed. Unless you're a United fan.

Why not to pick Rooney for the Euros

Alan Shearer says that, despite the three-match ban handed down to him by UEFA, Rooney should still be picked for next summer's European Championships. For many, that is reason enough to believe precisely the opposite. But in case you're still undecided (or Geordie), I thought I'd offer a few more detailed reasons why England's best player should not be taken to the tournament.

1. Three games is too long
England will do well to make it out the group during Euro 2012. If they do, the players that get us there deserve to maintain their place for the knockout stages. Tournament football is about consistency, you don't go chopping and changing half way through. We took David Beckham to the 2002 World Cup when we shouldn't have. Can anyone say that was a gamble that paid off?

2. Play the system, not the man
International football teams, at least the top ones, play to a set system, and the players fit into that. For club football, perhaps a team will build itself around one player, but in the international game that is just not the case. If Messi has to play out of position for Argentina why should England make exceptions for Rooney? And more pertinently, would Spain take Xavi or Iniesta if they were in this position? Would Portugal take Ronaldo, or Netherlands take Sneijder? You're damn right they wouldn't. To panic around the loss of one player is an embarrassing indictment of how far our international game has sunk.

3. Potential replacements
As talented as Rooney is, his performances for England do not make him undroppable. Our squad is supposed to believe that, if their form drops, then another will come in to take their place. If Rooney is taken to the Euros, this will undo that mentality altogether. If Danny Welbeck, Daniel Sturridge or Alex Chamberlain were to play in the opening three games and then be replaced by Rooney, what kind of message does that send to our young, emerging players? The decision Capello makes this summer could have significant knock on effects long after his reign has ended.

4. He is a knob
To kick another player when your team is in control of its final qualifying match, for whatever reason, is inexcusable. Representing your country at a major tournament should be a major honour, and Rooney's actions suggest that the event means precious little to him. Perhaps by taking the privilege away, it would teach him a bloody lesson.