Balotelli needs to show maturity

Ian Hawkey, Italian Football Correspondent

• Last Updated: November 22. 2009 11:23PM UAE / November 22. 2009 7:23PM GMT

To look at his record at the Stadio dall’Ara, you would imagine Mario Balotelli enjoys his visits to Bologna in Serie A.

Twice in successive seasons he has scored there for Inter Milan, on both occasions striking the goals to give his club their winning advantage. On neither occasion did he have the full 90 minutes to make his decisive interventions.

Last February, he converted a long-range clinching goal for 2-1. On Saturday, Balotelli’s header put Inter 2-1 up in the first-half, before Esteban Cambiasso added a third to make their victory, like their lead at the top of the table, feel a little more comfortable.

If you listened to sections of the Bolognese crowd, you would have to conclude that they do not like young Balotelli at all. Or that they do not like something he represents.

After scoring his goal, Balotelli immediately raised his finger to his lips in a hushing gesture. Not for the first time in his short career so far, he has had to hear noises that sounded like racist abuse.

Balotelli, the son of Ghanaian parents, should be on course to become the best black footballer to play senior international football for Italy, and if he has the sort of long stint in an Azzurri jersey that his talent suggests he should, he may go some way to eradicating the sort of idiocy that the some of the Bologna spectators displayed at the weekend.

The abuse has become an extra pressure on the teenager, and he has plenty of others to steer through. Balotelli is no angel, as a handful of incidents involving poor timekeeping, late nights and missed appointments can testify.

He had come into the resumption of the domestic season on the back of a scolding from Inter’s head coach Jose Mourinho, who gave him a low mark for his performance – “around about nought out of 10” – in the draw against Roma a fortnight ago.

He owed his starting place against Bologna to Mourinho’s desire to keep Samuel Eto’o, who began on the bench, fresh for the Champions League match in Barcelona tomorrow. But by half-time Mourinho had decided Balotelli had made his contribution and risked spoiling it in the second 45 minutes.

The striker had been cautioned, and Mourinho explained: “I took him off at half-time because he was on a yellow card and experience has taught me that in football, some players can control their emotions when on a yellow.”

In other words, Balotelli, in Mourinho’s eyes, was not one of those cool, sensible types who could exercise restraint?

“Mario tends always to play in the same way,” responded his head coach. “I did not want to take the risk of us having to play with 10 men.”

The note of disapproval was clear in Mourinho’s tone. Balotelli has been told he must earn Mourinho’s trust, show signs of maturity and the desire to impose self-control and self-discipline on his game.

The coach was sparing in his praise for the striker, too, a strategy he has been adopting towards Balotelli for a while.

“Mario had a normal first-half,” added the Portuguese. “He missed a goal and he scored one.”

The miss was no crime in the end, a 28th-minute duel with Bologna’s goalkeeper Emiliano Viviano that, with the ball bouncing awkwardly between the two players, the keeper won. Balotelli made amends with a strong hea-der to meet a corner just before the break. But his irritable trip on Andrea Raggi, which drew his yellow card, had already cast sentence as far as Mourinho was concerned.

Balotelli may still be a useful joker to play at Camp Nou, not only for his pace and power, but his impact, as on Saturday, from set-pieces. But the player and coach will continue to eye each other cautiously for some time yet.

In the pick of yesterday’s games, AC Milan were imperious in attack but woeful defensively in coming back from 2-1 down to win 4-3 at home to Cagliari.

Francesco Totti marked his return from almost two months out injured with a hat-trick in AS Roma’s 3-1 win over Bari while Palermo and Catania drew 1-1 in the Sicilian derby.

ihawkey@thenational.ae