Mario Balotelli has a very important message for fellow African Soccer Players

[Frangala]

Mixed reactions.

Balotelli was adopted by an Italian family after his Ghanaian immigrant parents could not afford to raise him due to financial difficulties.

The Ghanaian FA (national soccer governing board) reached out to him to see he could play for and represent Ghana in international competition since his parents are from there. He said he was Italian and wanted to play for Italy some day. He was young, he grew up in Italy with an Italian family with Italian norms, ended up having a child with an Italian woman. In addition, African FAs are known to be extremely disorganized there are truly horror stories.

HOWEVER, in my opinion the treatment that him and other Black players in have received in Italy outweigh anything. I wouldnt want to play in the Italian league let alone play for the national team. I know he came up through the ranks at Inter Milan but was probably talented enough to play anywhere else in a competitive league in Europe. I would have gotten the hell out of Italy and punish their teams during Champions League.

 

[Regine Hunter]

He changed his name to Mario Balotelli...

 

[generic-username]

I saw this on Facebook and I knew it was fake as soon as I saw it was credited to Mario Balotelli.

 

[hostsamurai]

He changed his name to Mario Balotelli...

He was born Mario, then fostered and adopted by parents who could afford to raise him.

 

[b_priest9mm]

Still, the sentiment behind the OP got me hype for a min.

 

[Me12k]

Even if that was true, I doubt more than 1% of African players in Europe would get on board.

*My post is with the assumption the quote is real, which I doubt.*

His intentions are good but it’s unrealistic. The goal for 99% of footballers is to earn as much as possible and win the sports most prestigious awards. Neither of those Ghana (country of Balotelli’s origin) are capable of providing.

Even within europe, players are moving out of their home countries to where the competition is greater and/or they’ll earn more money. An example is Mbappe. (Young player from France, national hero, won them a World Cup, arguably being their best player at 20yrs old.) Although money isn’t much a problem for him, there’s no doubt that he’ll be moving to an England or Spain team in a few years because their leagues are regarded as higher competition and he’ll likely make more money.

A more American example...., what Balotelli is saying in the OPs quote would be akin to top Dominican MLB players (ex. Jose Bautista, Juan Soto) saying they’ll leave the league to go play in the top Dominican league and never allow Dominicans to leave to go play in the MLB.......shyt would sound ridiculous. The thread would have been a whole bunch of . Dominicans top league even with all the current Dominicans stars in the MLB, would never bring the revenue or contracts of even the minor leagues.

A few of Balotelli’s points may have been taken 40-50 years ago when the average sports contract weren’t much more than the average white collar workers. But nowadays, fringe players who manage to keep themselves in the top leagues for 2-3yrs are making more $$$ than the total of all-time greats of the past.

What could and should happen is, African players start investing in the development of their compatriot youth players. It’s being done voluntarily by some players but not enough where it’s really impactful long term. Potentially, Balotelli can promote to players and country’s FAs to setup a sort of trust fund where most of what’s donated are coming from stipulations in their contracts where a percentage of the player’s salary goes back to the countries who helped them develop. Another critical matter is to have promising players stay together for longer, it is common in Africa where a player gets scouted very early and are moved to a foreign country at 16yrs, ex. Drogba to France. If possible, FIFA or CAF, should set up a 50% (or whatever %) tax that foreign teams would have to pay the African teams every year until the player is 21yrs. Ex. France team buys 19yr from Côte d’Ivoire team for $20m, each year on the player’s birthday the French team pays $10m till he’s 21yr. If corruption isn’t involver, money would go directly to the African team for infrastructure upgrades and continued development of the other players.

 

[ÆTHER]

Says the nikka that refuse to play for Ghana and chose Italy...FOH
Ghana could've used him in WCs '06,'10,'14

He was 15 in '06 though he definitely would have helped in 2010. His penalty record is insane, you put him on the spot against Uruguay instead of Gyan and there would have been an African semi finalist at an African World Cup .

 

[newworldafro]

 

[invalid]

*My post is with the assumption the quote is real, which I doubt.*

His intentions are good but it’s unrealistic. The goal for 99% of footballers is to earn as much as possible and win the sports most prestigious awards. Neither of those Ghana (country of Balotelli’s origin) are capable of providing.

Even within europe, players are moving out of their home countries to where the competition is greater and/or they’ll earn more money. An example is Mbappe. (Young player from France, national hero, won them a World Cup, arguably being their best player at 20yrs old.) Although money isn’t much a problem for him, there’s no doubt that he’ll be moving to an England or Spain team in a few years because their leagues are regarded as higher competition and he’ll likely make more money.

A more American example...., what Balotelli is saying in the OPs quote would be akin to top Dominican MLB players (ex. Jose Bautista, Juan Soto) saying they’ll leave the league to go play in the top Dominican league and never allow Dominicans to leave to go play in the MLB.......shyt would sound ridiculous. The thread would have been a whole bunch of . Dominicans top league even with all the current Dominicans stars in the MLB, would never bring the revenue or contracts of even the minor leagues.

A few of Balotelli’s points may have been taken 40-50 years ago when the average sports contract weren’t much more than the average white collar workers. But nowadays, fringe players who manage to keep themselves in the top leagues for 2-3yrs are making more $$$ than the total of all-time greats of the past.

What could and should happen is, African players start investing in the development of their compatriot youth players. It’s being done voluntarily by some players but not enough where it’s really impactful long term. Potentially, Balotelli can promote to players and country’s FAs to setup a sort of trust fund where most of what’s donated are coming from stipulations in their contracts where a percentage of the player’s salary goes back to the countries who helped them develop. Another critical matter is to have promising players stay together for longer, it is common in Africa where a player gets scouted very early and are moved to a foreign country at 16yrs, ex. Drogba to France. If possible, FIFA or CAF, should set up a 50% (or whatever %) tax that foreign teams would have to pay the African teams every year until the player is 21yrs. Ex. France team buys 19yr from Côte d’Ivoire team for $20m, each year on the player’s birthday the French team pays $10m till he’s 21yr. If corruption isn’t involver, money would go directly to the African team for infrastructure upgrades and continued development of the other players.

With respect to economics, are there estimates to how much the football industry brings in per year for, I'm tempted to say Africa as a whole, but, if not, a country like Nigeria?

 

[The Wall Is Undefeated!]

That’s his daughter’s mom. She used was a high-end escort, who also messed around with Italy’s former prime minister and she with Ronaldo as well.

He was with her for a few year but she’s with another footballer now.

Those Ghanaian genes are strong, His daughter looks just like him, basically, a light-skinned Ghanaian girl.

 

[MikelArteta]

F Italy I’ll never go back to that racist country.

 

[Tom Foolery]

Nice thought but you know he aint doing this.

Africa 2050 though.

 

[Originalman]

Those Ghanaian genes are strong, His daughter looks just like him, basically, a light-skinned Ghanaian girl.

If I saw his daughter ny herself I would have never thought she was mixed. Anyway a beautiful little sista.

 

[staticshock]

If real, .

Edit: thought this was about the redhead lewd, cooking nikka.

how did you think about the cooking dude when the title says fellow African soccer players?

you nikkas have the context clues levels of a fukkin 1st grader

 

[Heafcliffe]

how did you think about the cooking dude when the title says fellow African soccer players?

you nikkas have the context clues levels of a fukkin 1st grader

Posted at 1:31a, my guy. A breh was tired af.