Berlusconi: 'Balotelli is Milan's future, but...'
Sinisa Mihajlovic wasn’t very impressed when Mario Balotelli refused to celebrate his lone goal against Coppa Italia rivals Alessandria. Having put Milan up 5-0 in the return leg of the Cup semi-final, the Liverpool loanee chose not to celebrate as he usually does, prompting the Serbian to say that it “isn’t good, that’s not the way you do it”.
And yet, just a few days later, Miha is planning to start Super Mario alongside Carlos Bacca against risky opponents in Sassuolo, and on the road to boot. Far from being a provocation, the Serbian is counting on the former Azzurri star to show something, especially with M’Baye Niang out for two months and Jeremy Menez still looking for match fitness, though that didn’t stop him from banging in two against Alessandria.
Furthermore, we can report that Silvio Berlusconi made a bee-line for Super Mario on his last visit to Milanello, where he insisted on speaking to him alone and face-to-face.
His message? “You’re great, you’re our future, and I want to build an Italian team, one that the whole country can be proud of. You need to represent it, I want to keep you at Milan, I want to excercise your buyout clause from Liverpool. However….”
“However what?”
“You need to give it everything you’ve got, and keep up what you’re doing now, and no nonsense.”
Silvio is in perfect agreement with Sinisa on this one, the Serbian going so far as to specify that “Balotelli starts, Menez will come on later”.
The next three games will, then, be key not just for Milan and their third-place ambitions, but for Balotelli, too.
Giampero Timossi, translated by @EdoDalmonte
