The flow of Krazy Mario Balotelli stories has slowed since he left Manchester City for A.C. Milan in January. Maybe the Italy striker is calmer now that he’s back in familiar surroundings.
But here’s one for the collection: Gazzetta dello Sport reports that the foolish child 22-year-old man was told off by a train guard for smoking in a restroom during the team’s journey to Florence to face Fiorentina.
Smoking is prohibited on Italian trains. “I want to say that we’re going to fine him,” Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani told the paper. Balotelli has some prior form regarding train-based antics. And he’s a man capable of generating headlines simply by commenting on his ability to generate headlines.
In fairness, he is far from the only leading soccer star to be caught lighting up – Wayne Rooney’s been spotted in the past, among others.
But isn’t smoking when you’re an elite professional athlete who relies on lung power for your livelihood just plain stupid, and not in a funny kind of way? And doing so in a banned public place? That’s simply anti-social.
As for the match itself, Balotelli played the full 90 minutes and was booked as Fiorentina came from 2-0 down to claim a 2-2 draw despite having Nenad Tomovic sent off after 39 minutes. Milan stay third in Serie A, six points ahead of Fiorentina in fourth.
