New hope for Italy in the form of Mario Balotelli

Mario Balotelli is Italy’s hottest player at the moment and may stay that way for some time if he allows himself to do so. At just 22 years old he already has had an enormous amount of pressure put on him, to those who do not know and can not know just by looking at his name, Balotelli is black. He was born to Thomas and Rose Barwuah, Ghanaian immigrants living in Palermo, Sicily at the time of Mario’s birth. At the age of 3 the Barwuah’s decided to give Mario to a foster family, the Balotelli’s and at age 18 he was able to attain Italian citizenship. Even though Mario was born in Italy he still had to apply for citizenship due to Italian law.

            Though Mario’s passport and place of birth are Italian, he can not do anything about his skin color. He is the victim of racist chants such as “there is no such thing as black Italian”, being depicted as King Kong in an Italian newspaper, and having bananas thrown at him. He is often on the front page of Italian newspapers for great play and disciplinary issues, most notably a fight during practice with former manger Roberto Mancini. Interestingly, Mario is known to do things such as give a homeless man ₤1,000 after he won ₤25,000 gambling and finding a boy who was not in school watching his former club Manchester City’s practice because he was bullied and taking the boy back to school and confronting the bullies. In my opinion, these off the field antics are not surprising for someone who was given a big paycheck and labeled a superstar at age 15. (http://theshadowleague.com/articles/racism-in-european-soccer-is-a-disease-mario-balotelli-is-the-cure).

            Italy is not alone in the racism problem but is up there in the severity of it. Problems with racism has caused FIFA and UEFA federations to put a patch on players jersey sleeves that says ‘RESPECT’ while they are playing in international competition. Balotelli is a trailblazer in the fight against racism, he is the first ever African-America to play in Italy’s Azzurri jersey and the first to score in it as well. Balotelli’s coming out party was Euro 2012 where he was the leading scorer for an Italian team that was trying make its fans forget about a terrible display during the World Cup two years prior. With the help of Balotelli, Italy made the final of the European championship only to lose to a much better and experienced Spain side.

            Italy, like most football powerhouse nations is one with fierce domestic rivalries which is where Balotelli receives much of his derogatory racial chants. Internationally, both Italian and non Italian supporters root for one team, the Azzurri. Italy coach Cesare Prandelli is looking to mold a new Italy team around Balotelli and with the success of Italy spearheaded by Balotelli I believe the cure for racism in Italy can also be spearheaded by Balotelli. He has received much support for legends of the game such as Gigi Riva who in an interview with the Italian newspaper Corriere dello Sport said "I think of Balotelli as a symbol of Italy's nationality and therefore he is very important. He can become a point of reference in order to eradicate the disgusting thing that is racism.” If Balotelli can continue to receive the backing of Italian football legends and can continue successfully on and off the pitch, Italy football fans will have no reason but to accept him as Italian and one day maybe accept him as one of them. (http://www.goal.com/en-us/news/1956/europe/2013/03/25/3853443/balotelli-can-be-italys-racism-cure-says-riva).