Mario Balotelli and the Story of His Lightning Start at Nice

Why always him? It may be the ultimate Mario Balotelli cliche, harking back to the famous message he revealed from under his shirt after scoring in the Manchester derby back in 2011, but it was hard not to feel a fair dash of sympathy for him on Sunday afternoon. After scoring a sensational winner for his new club Nice, continuing his current hot streak, the Italian centre-forward was dismissed for two quickly collected bookings, including a harsh second yellow card.

Many who have not looked at the detail of the moment will paint it as the ultimate Balotelli moment—brilliance bookended by self-sabotage—but it wasn’t like that. Having picked up a first yellow for removing his shirt after scoring, the second arrived in stoppage time for what referee Olivier Thual deemed as moving his face into that of Lorient defender Steven Moreira.

.@FinallyMario sends @ogcnice back to the top of #Ligue1 with a late beauty. That’s six goals in five games now. 🔥 https://t.co/UNCch9ofzO

— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) October 2, 2016

It was no such thing. In fact, Balotelli was quite literally turning the other cheek. The surprise on Moreira’s face, as much as that on Balotelli’s, told its own story. Laudably, Thual has recognised his mistake, having reviewed the television images and reported as such to the technical director of referees, Pascal Garibian, as reported by L’Equipe (in French).

With UEFA’s recent decision to expunge Marco Verratti’s second yellow card with Paris Saint-Germain against Arsenal in the Champions League as precedent, there is every chance the same will happen for Balotelli and that—crucially—he will be available to play in the much-anticipated visit of Lyon to the Allianz Riviera after the international break.

We’ll find out for sure late on Thursday, after the Ligue de Football Professionnel’s (LFP) disciplinary board has its weekly meeting in Paris. It’s a relatively unprecedented situation, but on current form, Balotelli can turn back all sorts of tides.

The explosion of media interest at the 26-year-old’s arrival on the Cote d’Azur is to be expected; local newspaper Nice Matin reported a collection of over 30 photographers present at his first training session with the club. “We’ve never seen anything like that here,” the newspaper wrote. There has also been a bevy of eager autograph hunters and the simply curious.

What has been altogether more surprising, given his near-disappearance from sporting view in the past two campaigns, is his immediate roar into …

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