Italian racism burnt – Balotelli

Young Manchester City forward Mario Balotelli has spoken out about the pain of suffering racial abuse from fans in his homeland, following his big-money move to the Premier League.

The 20-year-old of Ghanaian origin, an often controversial figure in Italy, moved to England from Inter last week, just a few days after making his Italy debut in a friendly against Ivory Coast.

And having settled into his new home in Manchester, where he has been reunited with his former Inter boss Roberto Mancini, Balotelli spoke about the trauma of being racially abused, in particular from certain sections of the Juventus crowd.

“There were two or three incidents which are always annoying,” he told La Gazetta dello Sport.

“I had to learn to live with racism in Italy, to pretend it was nothing, but it burnt. In England that doesn’t happen. But it shouldn’t happen anywhere.”

Despite the racial abuse he suffered, Balotelli claimed it was not that but journalists that drove him away from the country of his birth.

And it was an incident after a Champions League match that for Balotelli was the last straw.

“Right after Inter-Barcelona (I decided to leave Italy). There were pages written about me in the newspapers, it was difficult to live in Milan and I told my agent: I want to go,” he said.

Balotelli had been jeered by his own fans during that game, a crucial 3-1 victory in which he made a lacklustre 20-minute cameo appearance, and he further enraged them by throwing his shirt to the ground after the final whistle.