If there was ever a moment to sum up Mario balotelli's professional career in a nutshell, it would be a whirlwind 2 minutes period in a hotly contested Manchester derby in mid october 2011, that saw him score to put his side a goal up against their bitter rivals and the celebration that ensued afterwards, somewhat strange, but no doubt iconic and the perfect way to describe him, Massively talented, but massively arrogant, the words 'why always me'imprinted onto his innershirt was as visible as the clear arrogance written on his face that day, it was the kind of arrogance you get to expect from the best players around and make no mistake, Mario was just as talented, but he was a bags of many other things, from an exciting and promising youth prospect to the big bad flop of italian football, a transformation not many would have predicted, but somehow there still remains no abnormality whatsoever in the way things panned out, in fact as far as the hot-headed temperament of mario balotelli was concerned, it followed due process, now 29 and plying his trade for newly promoted Brescia in the Italian top flight, we seek to provide answer's to the obvious questions embracing us now, what went wrong? Where exactly did all those promise go?.

Born in the sub-urban city of Palermo into the Barwuah family, his father Thomas, a 'poor metal worker' and mother Rose were immigrants from the west African country of Ghana and couldn't afford to train him so gave him up to his adoptive parents, Mr. Francesco and silvio balotelli who lived in the small town of brescia, life was hard as ever growing up in a middle class white community and as a black kid in school, he suffered the inevitable racial abuse, the hardships and humiliations that came with it, his alienation forced him to become introverted and shy and this no doubt had a huge bearing on how he became as a person, it was often a case of 'identity' problem, he didn't belong, shouldn't belong,couldn't belong, but somehow still ended up being there, eating and dining with them, reading and writing with them and most especially playing football with them.

His talent often shone out amongst his peers and this often provoked anger and jealousy from his mates over his ability, his raw talent took him places but he couldn't shake of the 'stigma' of his past, of being an unwanted kid and a misunderstood trouble maker, all of these was perfectly summed up by ex-manchester city teammate Pablo zabaleta, when asked sometime ago about him he said "Mario is a character that, as a team-mate, sometimes you laugh at what he does and sometimes you want to kill him," the Argentine international said. "But in the end he is a great person" he was a lost boy in a man's body.

His playing career started in 2006 shortly after he left his biological parents, he began playing for fc. Lumezzane in italy's lower division, but he only lasted one year there before having an unsuccessful trial at Barcelona and then joining inter Milan subsequently in 2007, the club that would later bring him into the football limelight, under the tutelage of then Milan coach, Roberto mancini he was brought into the first team and immediately impressed scoring 3 goals in 11 appearances that season, he had gained recognition and national attention by then and would then head into the following season as an important player in the inter team, but after the departure of mancini that summer, Jose mourinho was installed as the italians successor and the Portuguese manager famously called the Italian 'unmanageable' it might have been hyperbolic on his path, but in truth the former Porto and Chelsea manager wasn't joking around and froze him out of the first team due to disciplinary issues, "[As far as I'm concerned, a young boy like him cannot allow himself to train less than people like Figo, Córdoba , and

Zanetti ." he said after accusing the then 20 year old for a lack of effort, attitude problems continued to be a part of his stay at the Milan club coupled with incessant racist abuse from Italian fans mostly those of juventus, so in July 2010 ex-manager Roberto mancini decided to offer him a way out and brought him to his current club,Manchester city amid interest from their rivals.

Re-uniting with his ex-manager did little to quell his off-field activities and brewing arrogance and his performances continued to be enigmatic and unpredictable, there were always flashes of brilliance but it was always overshadowed by his rather dark moments, perfectly highlighted in the match, where he scored his first and second premier league goals for the club and later went on to receive a red card for violent misconduct involving wolves player, yousuf mulumbu.... That was balotelli's Manchester city career in a nutshell, inconsistent and hot-headed, But just how big of a talent was he?

"I've seen Mario do things in training that I have never seen anyone do before," former Italy striker Pierluigi Casiraghi once said in an interview. "Remember, I've played with Roberto Baggio [who almost single-handedly guided Italy to World Cup glory in 1994], Gianfranco Zola, and lots of the very best. That's when you realise his incredible potential." And he definitely wasn't wrong in his analysis, not when the world's highest football authority already did recognize it.

On 21 December 2010, Balotelli was awarded the FIFA golden boy award for the best young player in the world, following in the footsteps of other great talents, like wayne rooney, sergio aguero, cesc fabregas and Lionel messi, whom he famoulsly described as being only slightly better than him, his exact words were

"My objective is that this prize, in the near future, will lead to the Golden Ball without an age limit,” said. “Winning the Golden Boy is obviously a good omen for obtaining the main prize, which I have wanted from the very beginning.

He said.

“Who else would have won it other than me? There is only one [of the former winners] who is a bit stronger than me – Messi. All of the others are way behind me.”

such was the magnitude of talent he possessed, but it never really did it's talking on the pitch, but take nothing away from him, that victory was supposed to be a sign of things to come, an incentive to want to be the best, but it rather, remains to date his biggest individual accolade, caused by a stagnated career, if only he was consistent, focused and pushed himself to the top like the other past winners, a ballond'or award would not be an extensive reach for him, he really did have it all, a Zlatan esque physicality, a ferocious shot in him, those nifty dribbles and insane finishing skills, but it unfortunately couldn't propel him to the top, but he often did well to remind the world of his abilities once in a little while, like that memorable performance for Italy in the 2012 UEFA Euro semi-finals.

He left city in January 2013 after falling out with manager Roberto mancini, and returned to Italy to play for Ac milan, he managed to get his career back on track and that earned him a move to liverpool in the summer of 2015,but under the guidance of Brendan Rodgers he earned a pretty much unwanted tag of being one of the worst signings in the premier league era after a dismal season, with a return of just 4 goals in 29 appearances, the following season he returned to Ac milan on a season long loan and picked off from where he left in the Italian top flight, he returned back to liverpool in 2016 but was excluded from new manager jurgen klopp's pre-season tour squad and hence joined nice in the French league on transfer deadline day that summer.

The move to the beautiful French city, provided a breathe of fresh air for him and an opportunity to start his career again on a clean slate and one he grasped with both hands, he was soon back amongst the goals, back in the national team after a long absence and back to being talked about just for the right reasons, he helped nice secure a Uefa champions league qualifying spot in the league that season and followed it up in his second season where he scored a career high 26 goals across all competitions, he was finally having a decent career by his sub-standards but even that wasn't completely void of any controversy, he famously insulted a referee in a league match and received his usual marching orders and once got fined in advance for any future misconduct, he remained there for one more season before moving to brescia in the italian topflight, his hometown club , he was back to where it all began, now 29 and still in his prime his career is far from over and he may just be getting started, who knows? Even in the little unpredictable world of the super mario, we still get surprises, his career has no doubt failed to live up to expectations resulting in a wasted potential culminating in a wasted career, it was not meant to happen, should never have happened,but there can and should never be another Mario Balotelli.