Former Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli has spoken out about his relationship with manager Jurgen Klopp during their time at Anfield.
In an interview with Sky Italia (via Calcio Mercato), the 26-year-old said they only talked once and he didn’t receive very good news from the boss.
“He explained to me that I could stay there but I wasn’t his first choice and he said it was better if I went somewhere else: ‘Play, you do well and come back’, I said ‘goodbye and thank you’.”
The player also claimed it’s not his fault that he struggled towards the end of his last spell with Milan and at Liverpool, since he couldn’t control his physical issues: “Over the past two years, Liverpool and AC Milan were not ideal environments for me. I didn’t have technical, behavioural, professional mistakes: there were errors of injuries, which unfortunately I cannot control.”
Balotelli joined Liverpool in 2014 and only scored four goals in 28 games for the club. He had a loan spell at Milan during this period, where he managed 3 goals in 23 matches.
The Italian has a point, at least to a certain degree. At Liverpool, Brendan Rodgers very quickly decided he’d be sacrificial lamb and the manager clearly had no intention of trying to make a success of the move. At Milan he started very well before injury came and then the Italian club pushed him through it too hard until surgery was needed.
The start of Balotelli’s Nice career has been very impressive indeed, and perhaps he can get back to the form which saw him shine as one of Euro 2012’s best players.
