The Starting Five

(Reuters)

Euro 2012 brought Europe’s best footballers together to the delight of fan’s worldwide. In the midst of the hoopla, a new star has emerged in the sport where the greats are recognized on a one name basis.

Meet (Super) Mario Balotelli whose two goals against Germany put Italy in the Euro 2012 final against Spain. Spain would win Euro 2012 defeating Italy 4-0

(Getty Images)

Mario Balotelli issued a warning to anyone that chose to use racial slurs directed at him during Euro 2012.

He said he would kill them.

And that’s just part of being a Black player on the Italian national team, playing the world’s most popular sport. Racism is going to be there and the larger this 21-year olds legend grows, you can count on the chants getting louder. Balotelli is well on his way to being the face of a sport that has seen very few like his dominate at this age.

Born Mario Barwuah, his early life is complexed to say the least. The son of Ghanaian immigrants, he battled a life-threatening illness that eventually landed him in the care of the Balotellis, who have cared for Mario since he was three years of age. Mario denied to return to his biological parents citing that they only wanted him because of his fame.

Balotelli has been labeled in the foreign press as ”crazy” for some of his strange behavior but when reading some of these reports (some of them are false) it’s nothing more than what you see here in the States. From riding around with large sums of money because he’s “rich” to throwing darts at a teammate as part of a prank and even confronting the bully of one of his fans Balotelli is no different from your typical young star.

Balotelli’s warning to racist fans comes from taunts that he’s received since entering the sport. Even during Euro 2012 the Croatian national team was fined for racist taunts towards Balotelli. A paper in the country which Balotelli plays for even issued a racist cartoon with Balotelli posing as King Kong atop Big Ben. The paper regrets running the cartoon but never issued a formal apology.

No excuse for this!!!

The Lineup:

Adam Jones admits to blowing $1 million in one weekend (National Football Post).

Michael Vick marries long time sweetheart in Miami Saturday (In Flex We Trust).

Jamal Crawford is a wanted man (Pro Basketball Talk).

Dwight Howard makes it official, he wants to be a Brooklyn Net (ESPN).

Josh Hamilton receives a record 11.1 million all-star votes (Bloomburg Sports).

Jameer Nelson is a free agent (SB Nation).

Sixers re-sign LaVoy Allen for $6 million (IamaGM).

2 Million still without power due to extreme heat (CNN).

Interview with former NJ Net Jayson Williams (CNN).

World’s first GM (genetically modified) babies born (Mail Online).

 

No matter who you are…

 

This entry was posted on Monday, July 2nd, 2012 at 12:49 pm and is filed under Blogroll. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.