Balotelli: 'Messi, Ronaldo won too many Ballon d'Or because of me'
"The late agent Raiola told me many times that 'Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo has too many Ballon d'Ors, it's your fault'. And he was right. I usually only play with 20% of my ability," Balotelli said. said 4/24.
Balotelli never won the Ballon d'Or. The 32-year-old striker has never been a bright candidate and entered the Top 3. Meanwhile, Messi is holding a record of seven Golden Balls. Cristiano Ronaldo ranks second with five titles. In the last 14 awards, only Luka Modric and Karim Benzema have interrupted the era of dominance of Messi and Ronaldo.
The biggest individual award that Balotelli has ever won was the Golden Boy, the award for the best young player, in 2010. Rooney, Messi, Fabregas, Aguero, Pogba, Mbappe, Haaland, Pedri and Gavi have also won. Golden Boy.
At his peak, Balotelli won three Serie A and a Champions League with Inter, an English Premier League and an FA Cup with Man City. In the final match of the 2011-2012 Premier League season, it was the Italian striker who assisted Aguero to score the decisive goal to put Man City on the throne.
Balotelli's best individual performance was in the Euro 2012 semi-final. He scored both goals to help Italy beat Germany 2-1. But in the following final, Italy lost to Spain 0-4.
Balotelli played erratically after leaving Man City in 2013. Since 2019, the Italian striker has only played for average clubs like Brescia, Monza, Adana Demirspor. In the 2022-2023 season, he went to Switzerland to wear the Sion shirt. Balotelli scored 182 goals in 449 club games.
Balotelli has not given up hope of returning to the national team. He wants to improve his record of scoring 14 goals in 36 international matches. "When I play for the national team, I always feel happy," Balotelli said. "I always get along with coach Roberto Mancini. The information that we argued at Man City is not true. I still feel I deserve to play for the national team."
Balotelli has not played for Italy since 2018. In 2021, he missed the opportunity with the team to win the Euro. Coach Mancini summoned Balotelli back in early 2022, but did not use it.
