Mario Balotelli was born in Palermo on 12 August 1990. He rose up through the ranks of Inter’s youth academy, making his Serie A debut under Roberto Mancini on 16 December 2007, aged just 17. He won six trophies over the course of his three seasons with the Nerazzurri: three Scudetti, one Italian Super Cup, one Coppa Italia and the Champions League. He then moved to the Premier League with Manchester City in the summer of 2010, before making his return to Serie A in January 2013 with AC Milan. On 25 August 2014 he went back to the Premier League with Liverpool, then after another stint for the Rossoneri he moved on to Nice, where he scored 33 goals in 33 games. In January 2019, Mario signed for Marseille, where he netted eight goals in 13 appearances.

Balotelli made his National Team debut at the age of 19 in a friendly against the Ivory Coast, played on 10 August 2010 in London. A year later came the joy of his first Azzurri goal on 11 November 2011, in another friendly against Poland. He played under Prandelli at Euro 2012 in Poland and Ukraine, where his goals led Italy all the way to the final which was lost against Spain. With three goals, the Azzurri striker won the Golden Boot in the tournament joint with five other players, the first Italian to do so in the history of the National Team. He also made an important contribution in the 2014 World Cup qualifiers: scoring at San Siro against Denmark on 16 October 2012, before another great performance on 26 March 2013 where he netted a brace against Malta. Mario played a leading role in the Confederations Cup of the same year, where he was the team’s top scorer with two goals. A year later he travelled to Brazil for the World Cup, scoring one goal which helped secure a victory over England.

To date, he has made 36 appearances for the Azzurri and has scored 14 goals.