Whenever we talk about racism and its growing impact in the world of soccer, few names came to our mind instantly who has apparently been the main target of discriminating peoples and Italian striker Mario Balotelli is undoubtedly one of them. The highly controversial Milan forward is often found stuck with a controversy: sometime it is his own made while some time it is because of his color. He, now, talks about how he is being taken on the hit list by his own countrymen who claim to be the Italian fans and even added that if he would have been a white, there would have been lot more sympathy towards him and his game. Actually, whatever he is saying right now is nothing new, he always says these words whenever is subjected to any racial attack, even in the last month when he was racially abused, he denied off making it a big headline citing it has become a day to day routine for him. Now, ahead of the world cup, he has expressed his views about how discrimination has prevailed in his own State and asks how they can expect other nations to treat players equally irrespective of their color. Notably, this 23-year-old dramatic forward has been in a good form since he returned from England last year, in fact, on his arrival to hometown he criticized whole English atmosphere and held it responsible for his bad show in and outside of the ground over there and now he has started repeating the same about his own nation.
In his recent interview to a sports magazine, he expressed his feelings about the culture in Italy. He said, “They aren’t used to seeing people who are different, not white, who act not as rebels but normally. I think what the ignorant people don’t like is that people who are different are allowed to act that way. These stupid people, they get angry with me, they say horrible things, but I haven’t done anything different from other people.
“I have made mistakes, like everyone does, and I have always paid for my mistakes. I think that if I was white maybe some people would still find me irritating or annoying but it wouldn’t be the same. Absolutely not. Jealousy is a horrible thing, but when this jealousy is towards people who are different from the majority, and who maybe also have more than you, then it becomes anger, it becomes rage, and that’s the overt racism.”
This could also be his attempt to grasp the headlines ahead of an important international event, let’s see how he proves his critics wrong and performs differently in the Brazilian tourney!
