The Fantabulous Adventures of Mario Balotelli

[Hobo]

Thinks milk with tea is strange

This is the only thing I will say doesn't qualify for this thread. Because if it did, a waitress who once served me in a cafe in Latvia is also a legend. Not every country accepts that tea and milk go together. There are some teas (not just herbal ones) you don't even need milk to drink!

Everything else is perfectly awesome.

[MDK]

Thinks milk with tea is strange

This is the only thing I will say doesn't qualify for this thread. Because if it did, a waitress who once served me in a cafe in Latvia is also a legend. Not every country accepts that tea and milk go together. There are some teas (not just herbal ones) you don't even need milk to drink!

Everything else is perfectly awesome.

Yeah, in Poland they like tea without milk. I was so shocked that my monocle nearly fell out.

[Matt]

I used to drink tea without milk, still do occasionally.

[Colly]

My wife drinks tea without milk. It's fucking weird.

[Clawson]

When I was a student I always drank it without milk because I couldn't be bothered to buy it. Just loaded it up with more sugar instead.

[Lineker]

I don't drink tea. Or any other hot beverage for that matter.

[Dingle]

I can confirm Balotelli was out and about handing out money due to the sheer amount of people banging on about it when I was in Manchester centre last week. Unfortunately I didn't get to track him down .

[Matt]

That sucks, Jouzy

Having to go to Manchester.

[Cheeky Hughes]

From NME.com

Tinchy Stryder has recorded a song in honour of Manchester City Football Club's maverick striker Mario Balotelli.

The track, which is called 'Mario Balotelli (Ruff Sqwad)', repeats the phrase 'Why Always Me?' during its chorus. This is named after the phrase that the Italian striker revealed on a t-shirt under his football kit after he scored during his side's 6-1 win over Manchester United. It also takes a sample from Manchester City's manager Roberto Mancini talking about the striker and a snippet of player himself saying: "I'm different, I'm Mario".

Balotelli has enjoyed a very high media profile since he moved to England last summer from Italian side Inter Milan, with the striker involved in a series of widely reported incidents. These have included his bathroom catching fire after he and friends allegedly set off fireworks from out of its windows and him reportedly handing over £1000 to a homeless man who he encountered walking through the streets of Manchester.

The striker's antics have landed him a series of high profile fans, with both Noel and Liam Gallagher and a host of others revealing that they are huge admirers of the Italian international.

The track is available to be downloaded for free as part of Tinchy Stryder's new eight-track EP, which is titled 'Wish List'. You can also hear the whole EP, including 'Mario Balotelli (Ruff Sqwad)', by scrolling down to the bottom of the page and clicking.

And here is said song:

[EddieG]

Tea without milk is how we drink it in Holland.

[Lineker]

Mario urged to quit smoking!!

[Gazz]

Tea without milk is how we drink it in Holland.

Yeah, but you're all fucking weird.

[Starvinho]

Mario Balotelli 'banned from returning to his home'

Manchester City's controversial striker Mario Balotelli has been banned from returning to his £3million mansion by his landlord.

The volatile Italian has been living in a city centre hotel since a firework was set off in his bathroom, starting a fire that caused significant damage to the property.

Now the 21-year-old has been told he cannot return to his home until he settles a bill, which has run into tens of thousands of pounds, for the damage he has caused since moving in.

The sum includes fire damage and the wrecking of expensive dining room chairs.

However, Balotelli is disputing the bill and is refusing to pay up, which has led the landlord to start legal proceedings in a bid to recover money from the Premier League star.

The City man had only been in the Mottram St Andrew house for a month when the fire brigade were called on the eve of his team's game against rivals Manchester United last October.

A Manchester City spokesman said: 'Mario feels that he is being ripped off. The club is aware of the matter and we are backing Mario fully in this.'

Balotelli has previous form with fireworks as he received a police caution for setting off £1,500 worth of pyrotechnics in a flat he rented in the city.

[ChrisSteeleAteMyHamster]

I just heard rumours that Mario bought petrol for everyone on a garage forecourt when he filled up his car. Can't find an article on it though.

[Lineker]

Wish I was filling up there then!!

A lonely young man, exasperated by the English press, who wants to become more involved in Italian social issues was the picture Mario Balotelli drew of himself in an extensive interview published yesterday.

The Manchester City striker confessed to having no close friends in his adopted city and said that if he left the Premier League it would be to return to Italy.

"I am 21 years old and I am a long way from home," he told L'Uomo Vogue. "In spite of all the profound differences between here and home I am pretty adaptable but I don't have any real friends here and if I have to move – whenever that is – then I'll choose Italy."

Though he claimed that the British press is obsessed by him, they have merely followed the path taken by journalists in Italy. In June, La Stampa reported his tour of a crime-ridden mafia estate "looking around wide-eyed as if it were Disneyworld". They did the same for his unannounced visit to a women's prison in Brescia.

However, Balotelli said he was particularly embarrassed by the Italian media's habit of quoting British tabloid reports as if they were fact. "I can never win with English journalists," he said. "If I buy a Fiat Uno, I read articles saying I am the type of guy who should be buying a Ferrari. If I choose the Ferrari, they write that I should keep my feet on the ground and buy a Fiat.

"If I laugh, I am not a serious person. If I don't laugh, I am a rich sulk who can't be motivated to do the most beautiful job in the world. Here, in England, the tabloid press writes about everything you do and they always exaggerate.

"But the one thing I can't stand is that in Italy the stupidities of the tabloids are picked up and amplified without anybody bothering to check."

Given that Jose Mourinho, the manager with whom he spectacularly fell out at Internazionale, has expressed a desire to return to England when he has finished with Real Madrid, it was probably politic for Balotelli to offer him an olive branch. "As a coach, Mourinho is among the best," said Balotelli who was rated "unmanageable" by the man who took Inter to the treble in 2010. "However, if I had to give my opinion, I would say it would be Roberto Mancini first and then Mourinho.

"A manager has to extract 100 per cent of a footballer's ability and Mancini is very skilled at doing that. But the treble was a conquest extracted from a great squad of players to whom I still feel a fond connection."

L'Uomo Vogue was one of Balotelli's great supporters when he was the victim of racist abuse at Inter, picturing him in an Italian flag on their front cover. His interest in politics, particularly racial politics, he said, was still strong. The murder of two Senegalese migrant workers by a far-right gunman in Florence last month moved him deeply. "If I can intervene in some social matters, then I will, so long as it's not turned into party politics because that's tough territory for me," he said. "I was very upset by that chilling racist murder in Florence.

"I don't play in Italy and I give interviews very rarely so I don't have the chance to put my point of view straight away. Perhaps if I had been back home I would have taken a public stand over what happened. But in some way or other, I still want to lend a hand."

From the Independant.

[Steeb]

He actually sounds far more intelligent than I expected, ridiculously so, in fact. Makes me like him even more.

[Colly]

Written statement. Wayne Rooney sounds intelligent in those...

[Dan]

http://menmedia.co.uk/manchestereveningnews/news/s/1470556_madcap-mario-strikes-again-balotelli-walks-into-manchester-school-and-asks-pupils-if-he-can-use-the-toilet

:lmao:

[Gazz]

Best we ever got was a stray dog

[Dynamite]

Ah shit, this is like a five minute walk away from my uni place. I did see him once in Selfridges though.