Mario Balotelli is an Italian professional football player who has been listed top among football players doing charity over the years.
Mario Balotelli, an Italian professional footballer, was born on 12 August 1990. He started his professional career at Lumezzane and is currently with Adana Demirspor FC.
Popularly called ‘Super Mario,’ the footballer is known to have a bad reputation for being one of the football bad boys. In 2019, Mario Balotelli paid £150,000 a season in his team while playing for Manchester City.
His former teammate, Micah Richard who was collecting money for being late, clumsy or generally anti-social in their club revealed that he was often chasing Mario Balotelli.
According to Richard, they used to give all their money to charities and by Christmas time, they had £100,000-£150,000 from Mario’s late coming.
Despite Mario’s attitude, he is given maximum respect for his charity work in and outside Africa.
In The Sun 2020, Richard revealed some of his amazing charity work while in Manchester.
In his BBC Column, Richard wrote:
‘Everything about him is outrageous, but he has a heart of gold.
Mario Balotelli did let the things said about him to get to him, but what is true is that he gave £1,000 in cash to a homeless person in Manchester on at least one occasion.
“He donated a lot to causes like that, I heard him once deny that he collected a boy who was being bullied at school and took him to see the headmaster, but I think that happened because people were calling me to tell me that Mario had been seen at a school.” Richard added.
• Mario Balotelli supported the Cvey Machar Secondary School by helping out to ensure the completion of the school in Sudan.
• He donated his earnings from the sales of the children book written by Luigi Garlando to an organisation aimed at providing humanitarian aid in different countries.
• In Brazil, Mario supported the UN Ponteri Per il Future (A Bridge for the future) A project that offers help to local associations committed to providing education for the children at Salvador de Bahia.
Mario Balotelli may have been heavily criticised for being extravagant which takes more public notice than his professional performance in the field, however, he has always proven to have humanity at heart.