ليدز

ليدز حاضرة غرب يوركشير في إنجلترا (المملكة المتحدة). تقع على ضفتي نهر الآير، وتبعد عن مدينة يورك حوالي 40 كم. يبلغ عدد سكانها حوالي 781,700 نسمة (عام 2016) فهي تناهز مدينة شيفيلد سكانا وأهمية في يوركشير. ومدينة ليدز تقع ضمن منطقة حضرية ممتدة تضم برادفورد وهدرسفيلد وغيرها من البلدات.
السكان
بها كثافة عالية من جاليات جنوب آسيا، ونسبة عالية من المسلمين والأقليات عموما.

الاقتصاد
نشطت فيها صناعات المنسوجات، والأثاث، والورق، والجلد، والإلكترونيات. تشكل اليوم مركز تجاري وثقافي لمنطقة الشمال الإنجليزي.

بمدينة ليدز يعمل 108,000 موظف في القطاع العام بما يعادل 24% من القوى العاملة. أكبر قطاع توظيف هو قطاع المجلس البلدي بالمدينة ويعمل به 33,000 موظف و يأتي بالمرتبة الثانية المستشفى التعليمي  حيث يعمل به 14,000 موظف.

أصبحت مدينة ليدز المركز الرئيسي للقطاعات الصحية العامة. القسم الصحي ل إن إتش اس بإنجلترا ، الاهتمام بجودة العمولات، الرقمي والصحة العامه بإنجلترا جميعهم لديهم مراكز في ليدز.أكبر مستشفى تعليمي  أوربي أيضا أُسس بليدز ، وهي المركز الأساسي لمركز السرطان بمقاطعة اليوركشير،وهو الأكبر من نوعه في أوروبا. مفتاح الأقسام والمنظمات الحكومية في ليدز تشمل قطاعات العمل والمعاشات التي يشغلها أكثر من 3,000 موظف ، القسم الصحي يشغله أكثر من 800 موظف ، يشغله أكثر من 1200 موظف، وأخيرا المكتبة البريطانية والتي تضم 1100 موظف.

المواصلات

محطة قطارات ليدز
يربط ليدز الطريق السريع 621 القصير الذي يربطها بالطريق السريع 1 (شمالا وجنوبا) والطريق السريع 62 (شرقا وغربا)، إضافة إلى الطريق الرئيسي 1 الذي يصل إدنبرة ولندن.

بها أيضا مطار ليدز برادفورد (نحو 13 كم شمال غرب المدينة).

وبالمدينة محطة قطارات رئيسية تصل بأنحاء البلاد.

التاريخ
تاريخ ليدز يعود للعصر الروماني، حيث بني حصن في مناطق المدينة الحالية لصد هجمات الأعداء، خاصة تلك الآتية من الشمال. المدينة الحديثة تأسست في القرن الثامن عشر مع ازدهار التجارة في المنطقة. خاصة في نقل الفحم من المناجم القريبة التي تبعد خمسة كيلومترات عن ليدز. تم بناء أول خط سكة حديد في بريطانيا بين ليدز ومناجم ميدلستون في عام 1758، التي سار عليها أيضا في عام 1812 أول قطار بخاري بريطاني. نمت المدينة بشكل سريع أثناء الثورة الصناعية في القرن التاسع عشر، خاصة من خلال إنشاء العديد من مصانع المنسوجات في المدينة.

المعالم

جامع ليدز الكبير.
من أهم معالم المدينة:

ميدان فيكتوريا (Victoria Square)
شارع فيكتوريا (victorian Quarter)
غاليري فن المدينة (City Art Gallery)
مصنع تيتلي للمشروبات (Tetley's Brewery)
متحف الأسلحة الملكية (Royal Armouries)
بيت هيروود (Harewood House)
مدرسة رويدز Royds school
التعليم
بها جامعة عريقة وهي جامعة ليدز. و كذلك جامعة ليدز بيكت

Leeds

Leeds is the largest city in the county of West Yorkshire in Northern England, approximately 170 miles north of central London.[6] Leeds has one of the most diverse economies of all the UK's main employment centres and has seen the fastest rate of private-sector jobs growth of any UK city. It also has the highest ratio of private to public sector jobs of all the UK's Core Cities, with 77% of its workforce working in the private sector. Leeds has the third-largest jobs total by local authority area, with 480,000 in employment and self-employment at the beginning of 2015.[5] Leeds is ranked as a High Sufficiency level city by the Globalization and World Cities Research Network.[7] Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial heart of the West Yorkshire Urban Area.[8][9][10] Leeds is served by five universities, and has the fourth largest student population in the country and the country's fourth largest urban economy.[11]

Leeds was a small manorial borough in the 13th century, and in the 17th and 18th centuries it became a major centre for the production and trading of wool, and in the Industrial Revolution a major mill town; wool was still the dominant industry, but flax, engineering, iron foundries, printing, and other industries were also important.[12] From being a market town in the valley of the River Aire in the 16th century, Leeds expanded and absorbed the surrounding villages to become a populous urban centre by the mid-20th century. It now lies within the West Yorkshire Urban Area, the United Kingdom's fourth-most populous urban area, with a population of 2.6 million.[13]

Today, Leeds has become the largest legal and financial centre outside London[5][14] with the financial and insurance services industry worth £13 billion to the city's economy. The finance and business service sector account for 38% of total output[5][15][16] with more than 30 national and international banks located in the city, including an office of the Bank of England.[14] Leeds is also the UK's third-largest manufacturing centre with around 1,800 firms and 39,000 employees, Leeds manufacturing firms account for 8.8% of total employment in the city and is worth over £7 billion to the local economy.[15] The largest sub-sectors are engineering, printing and publishing, food and drink, chemicals and medical technology.[17] Other key sectors include retail, leisure and the visitor economy, construction, and the creative and digital industries. The city saw several firsts, including the oldest-surviving film in existence, Roundhay Garden Scene (1888), and the 1767 invention of soda water.[18][19]

Public transport, rail and road communications networks in the region are focused on Leeds, and the second phase of High Speed 2 will connect it to London via East Midlands Hub and Sheffield Meadowhall. Leeds currently has the third busiest railway station[20] and the tenth busiest airport outside London
Toponymy
The name derives from the old Brythonic word Ladenses meaning "people of the fast-flowing river", in reference to the River Aire that flows through the city.[22] This name originally referred to the forested area covering most of the Brythonic kingdom of Elmet, which existed during the 5th century into the early 7th century.[23]

Bede states in the fourteenth chapter of his Ecclesiastical History, in a discussion of an altar surviving from a church erected by Edwin of Northumbria, that it is located in ...regione quae vocatur Loidis (Latin, "the region which is called Loidis"). An inhabitant of Leeds is locally known as a Loiner, a word of uncertain origin.[24] The term Leodensian is also used, from the city's Latin name.

The name has also been explained as a derivative of Welsh lloed, meaning simply "a place".[25]

Economic development
Leeds developed as a market town in the Middle Ages as part of the local agricultural economy.

Before the Industrial Revolution, it became a co-ordination centre for the manufacture of woollen cloth, and white broadcloth was traded at its White Cloth Hall.[26]

Leeds handled one sixth of England's export trade in 1770.[27] Growth, initially in textiles, was accelerated by the building of the Aire and Calder Navigation in 1699 and the Leeds and Liverpool Canal in 1816.[28] In the late Georgian era, William Lupton, Lord of the Manor of Leeds, was one of a number of central Leeds landowners with the mesne lord title, some of whom, like him, were textile manufacturers. At the time of his death in 1828, Lupton's land in Briggate in central Leeds included a mill, reservoir, manor house and outbuildings.[29][30]

The railway network constructed around Leeds, starting with the Leeds and Selby Railway in 1834, provided improved communications with national markets and, significantly for its development, an east-west connection with Manchester and the ports of Liverpool and Hull giving improved access to international markets.[31] Alongside technological advances and industrial expansion, Leeds retained an interest in trading in agricultural commodities, with the Corn Exchange opening in 1864.


Leeds from the Meadows by Joseph Rhodes, 1825.
Marshall's Mill was one of the first of many factories constructed in Leeds from around 1790 when the most significant were woollen finishing and flax mills.[32] Manufacturing diversified by 1914 to printing, engineering, chemicals and clothing manufacture.[33] Decline in manufacturing during the 1930s was temporarily reversed by a switch to producing military uniforms and munitions during World War II. However, by the 1970s, the clothing industry was in irreversible decline, facing cheap foreign competition.[34] The contemporary economy has been shaped by Leeds City Council's vision of building a '24-hour European city' and 'capital of the north'.[35] The city has developed from the decay of the post-industrial era to become a telephone banking centre, connected to the electronic infrastructure of the modern global economy.[35] There has been growth in the corporate and legal sectors,[36] and increased local affluence has led to an expanding retail sector, including the luxury goods market.[37]

Leeds City Region Enterprise Zone was launched in April 2012 to promote development in four sites along the A63 East Leeds Link Road.[38]

Local government

Greed

Greed, or avarice, is an inordinate or insatiable longing for material gain, be it food, money, status, or power.

As a secular psychological concept, greed is an inordinate desire to acquire or possess more than one needs. The degree of inordinance is related to the inability to control the reformulation of "wants" once desired "needs" are eliminated. Erich Fromm described greed as "a bottomless pit which exhausts the person in an endless effort to satisfy the need without ever reaching satisfaction." It is typically used to criticize those who seek excessive material wealth, although it may apply to the need to feel more excessively moral, social, or otherwise better than someone else.

The purpose for greed, and any actions associated with it, is possibly to deprive others of potential means (perhaps, of basic survival and comfort) or future opportunities accordingly, or to obstruct them therefrom, thus insidious and tyrannical or otherwise having a negative connotation. Alternately, the purpose could be defense or counteraction from such dangerous, potential negotiation in matters of questionable agreeability. A consequence of greedy activity may be an inability to sustain any of the costs or burdens associated with that which has been or is being accumulated, leading to a backfire or destruction, whether of self or more generally. So, the level of "inordinance" of greed pertains to the amount of vanity, malice or burden associated with it.
Views
Thomas Aquinas says that greed "is a sin against God, just as all mortal sins, in as much as man condemns things eternal for the sake of temporal things."[1]:A1 In Dante's Purgatory, the avaricious penitents were bound and laid face down on the ground for having concentrated too much on earthly thoughts. Greed can also be represented by the fox.

Meher Baba dictated that "Greed is a state of restlessness of the heart, and it consists mainly of craving for power and possessions. Possessions and power are sought for the fulfillment of desires. Man is only partially satisfied in his attempt to have the fulfillment of his desires, and this partial satisfaction fans and increases the flame of craving instead of extinguishing it. Thus greed always finds an endless field of conquest and leaves the man endlessly dissatisfied. The chief expressions of greed are related to the emotional part of man."[2]

Ivan Boesky famously defended greed in an 18 May 1986 commencement address at the UC Berkeley's School of Business Administration, in which he said, "Greed is all right, by the way. I want you to know that. I think greed is healthy. You can be greedy and still feel good about yourself".[3] This speech inspired the 1987 film Wall Street, which features the famous line spoken by Gordon Gekko: "Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right, greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit. Greed, in all of its forms; greed for life, for money, for love, knowledge has marked the upward surge of mankind."[4]

Inspirations
Scavenging and hoarding of materials or objects, theft and robbery, especially by means of violence, trickery, or manipulation of authority are all actions that may be inspired by greed. Such misdeeds can include simony, where one profits from soliciting goods within the actual confines of a church. A well-known example of greed is the pirate Hendrick Lucifer, who fought for hours to acquire Cuban gold, becoming mortally wounded in the process. He died of his wounds hours after having transferred the booty to his ship.[5]

Genetics
Some research suggests there is a genetic basis for greed. It is possible people who have a shorter version of the ruthlessness gene (AVPR1a) may behave more selfishly

ماريو بالوتيلي

ماريو بالوتيلي بارواه (بالإيطالية: Mario Balotelli Barwuah)، (مواليد 12 أغسطس 1990)، هو لاعب كرة قدم إيطالي من أصل غاني يلعب في مركز الهجوم مع نادي أولمبيك مارسيليا الفرنسي و منتخب إيطاليا
نشأته
ولد بالوتيلي في باليرمو في جزيرة صقلية الإيطالية عام 1990، واسمه الحقيقي هو ماريو بارواه من أبوين مهاجرين غانيين. ومنذ ولادته تبين إصابته بمرض في الأمعاء كاد أن يودي بحياته مما اضطر والده الذهاب بالعائلة إلى مدينة بريشيا الصناعية ليجد له عملا أفضل لتوفير حياة كريمة لعائلته وأولاده الأربعة. لكن وبعد إجراء عدد من العمليات الجراحية لماريو أصبحت ظروف الحياة أصعب مما جعل العائلة تلجأ لمراكز الخدمات الاجتماعية.

قبل أن يتم السنة الثالثة من عمره تم إرساله إلى عائلة إيطالية لرعايته لمدة سنة. لكنه بقي معها حتى اليوم ويعتبر ماريو أن فرانشسكو وسيلفيا بالوتيللي هما والداه الحقيقيان وغير اسم عائلته تيمناً بعائلته الجديدة على الرغم من عدم تبنيه رسمياً حتى اللحظة.

يعتبر ماريو أن والديه الأصليين تخليا عنه والآن يريدانه فقط لأنه أصبح مشهوراً. لكن يقول والداه إنهما لطالما أرادا استعادته. ويقول والده توماس بارواه "إدعى ماريو أننا تخلينا عنه عند ولادته في المستشفى وإننا كنا نضربه في صغره كلاهما أمران غير صحيحين! فماريو هو أول ولد ذكر في العائلة ونحن كنا نحاول دائماً أن نوفر له حياة أفضل ولطالما وددنا استرجاعه لكنه لم يكن يقبل وأعتقد أن والديه بالتبني زرعا بعض الأفكار في رأسه".

مسيرته الكروية
بدايته المبكرة
في يونيو 2006، قضى ماريو اسبوعا اختباريا مع طلاب نادي برشلونة. هناك تعرف على لاعبين مثل تياغو ألكانتارا ومارك بارترا.حيث لعب ثلاث مباريات مع طلاب وكان قد سجل ثمانية اهداف. وكانت إدارة برشلونة على استعداد لضمه لصفوفها ويصبح طالب في أكاديمية لا ماسيا، ولكن مبالغة وكيل اعماله آنذاك في تحديد سعر الانضمام خاصة في ذلك السن أدت إلى فشل صفقة انضمامه إلى الأكاديمية. بدأ مشواره الكروي مع فريق ليميزاني. ولعب لأول مرة في سن 15 ضد فريق بادوفا في الدوري الإيطالي الدرجة الأولى.

إنتر ميلان
وبعد عامين فقط من ظهوره على الساحة الكروية مع ليميزاني في عام 2006، انتقل في إعارة إلى نادي إنتر ميلان. وبدأ حياته المهنية في استاد جوزيبي مياتزا في تشكيلة الفريق تحت سن 17 عاما قبل أن ينضم إلى نادي بريمافيرا تحت سن 20 عاما.

مع الفريق الأول
شارك لأول مرة في الفريق الأساسي في ديسمبر 2007 كاحتياطي، وبعد ثلاثة أيام سجل هدفين في مباراة إنتر ميلان الإيطالي أمام فريق ريجينا والتي انتهت بنتيجة 4–1.

وقد وقع بالوتيلي اتفاقاً مدته ثلاث سنوات مع انتر ميلان قبل موسم 08–2009. وفي نوفمبر 2008 أصبح أصغر لاعب في انتر ميلان يسجل في دوري أبطال أوروبا عندما سجل هدف ضد أنورثوسيس فاماغوستا. واستمر منذ ذلك الحين في مساعدة انتر ميلان في الفوز في عام 2010 بالثلاثية التاريخية دوري أبطال أوروبا وكأس إيطاليا والدوري الإيطالي فضلاً عن إحرازه 20 هدفاً في 59 مباراة.

مانشستر سيتي
بعد أسابيع من التكهنات والإشاعات، توصل إنتر ميلان إلى اتفاق بشأن انتقال بالوتيلي إلى مانشستر سيتي في 12 أغسطس 2010 مقابل 21.8 مليون يورو. في مانشستر سيتي اجتمع بالوتيلي مع مدربه السابق روبرتو مانشيني، الذي قال: "أسلوبه في اللعب يتناسب مع الدوري الإنجليزي الممتاز، ولأنه لا يزال صغيرًا جدًا، هناك فرصة كبيرة لتطوره. إنه لاعب قوي ومثير، وسيستمتع عشاق السيتي بمشاهدته". تبادل بالوتيلي رقم الفريق مع زميله غريغ كونينغهام حتى يتمكن من الاستمرار في ارتداء القميص رقم 45.

ميلان
في 29 يناير 2013، أعلن المدير المنظم لنادي ميلان أمبرتو غانديني، أن النادي على التوقيع مع بالوتيلي من مانشستر سيتي في صفقة مدتها أربعة أعوام ونصف العام يشاع بأنها قيمتها 20 مليون يورو بالإضافة إلى مكافآت وإضافات. واقترح روبرتو مانشيني مدرب مانشستر سيتي في ذلك الوقت بيع بالوتيلي لميلان من أجل مصلحة اللاعب، واصفا المهاجم بأنه "مثل أحد أولادي" ، وقال إن بالوتيلي قد يصبح أحد أفضل اللاعبين في العالم عندما تم ضبطة في الدوري الإيطالي.

ليفربول
في أغسطس 2014، انضم بالوتيلي إلى ليفربول مقابل 16 مليون جنيه إسترليني، ليحل محل لويس سواريز.

العودة إلى ميلان (إعارة)
في 27 أغسطس 2015، عاد بالوتيلي إلى ميلان على سبيل الإعارة لمدة موسم.

نيس
في 31 أغسطس 2016، وفي أخر يوم من نهاية فترة الانتقالات الصيفية، تم الإعلان أن بالوتيلي قد انضم إلى نادي نيس الفرنسي في صفقة انتقال حر، بعد التوقيع على عقد لمدة عام واحد.

مسيرته الدولية
في 7 أغسطس 2007 وقبل خمسة أيام من عيد ميلاده السابع عشر، تلقى اللاعب الشاب ولأول مرة دعوة للعب مع منتخبات لفئة الكبار من مدرب منتخب غانا كلود لو روا للعب مباراة ودية ضد منتخب السنغال في ملعب نيو دن في لندن لكنه لم يقبل العرض مؤكداً أنه يحترم غانا لكنه إيطالي ولن يلعب غير منتخب إيطاليا، وقد ذكر أنه يود اللعب مع منتخبه عندما يتم استدعاؤه وهو أول لاعب أسمر يلعب للمنتخب الإيطالي في بطولة أمم أوروبا 2012.

Mario Balotelli

Mario Balotelli Barwuah (Italian pronunciation: [ˈmaːrjo baloˈtɛlli]; born Mario Barwuah; 12 August 1990) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a striker for Serie A club Brescia and the Italy national team.

He started his professional football career at Lumezzane and played for the first team twice before having an unsuccessful trial at Barcelona,[5] and subsequently joining Inter Milan in 2007. Inter manager Roberto Mancini brought Balotelli into the first team, but when Mancini left, Balotelli's disciplinary record fell away. He had a strained relationship with new manager José Mourinho and was suspended from Inter's first team in January 2009 after a number of disciplinary problems.

With doubts over his career at Inter, former coach Roberto Mancini had since moved to Manchester City and decided to give Balotelli a fresh chance at a new club. He joined Manchester City in August 2010, where his performances and off-field activities continued to be enigmatic and unpredictable. Balotelli eventually fell out of favour with Mancini after a "training ground bust up" between the two in January 2013.[6] His departure from City and return to Italy with Milan followed several weeks later.[7] After 18 months at Milan, he returned to the Premier League with Liverpool. An unsuccessful season with the Merseyside club led to his return to Milan on loan and subsequent departure on a free transfer to Nice.

Balotelli earned his first cap for Italy in a friendly match against the Ivory Coast on 10 August 2010. He amassed over 30 caps and represented his country at UEFA Euro 2012, the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup, and the 2014 FIFA World Cup; he helped the national side reach the final of Euro 2012, and also won a bronze medal at the Confederations Cup. Along with Antonio Cassano, he is Italy's top-scorer in the UEFA European Championship with three goals.[8] He is also Italy's top scorer in the FIFA Confederations Cup, alongside Giuseppe Rossi and Daniele De Rossi, with two goals
Early life
Mario Balotelli was born in Palermo, Sicily, as the son of Ghanaian immigrants.[10] The family moved to Bagnolo Mella in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, when he was two.[11]

In 1993, when he was three, Balotelli was placed in foster care to the Balotelli family when his own family was unable to pay for his health care needs.[10][12] His foster parents are Silvia, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors,[13] and Francesco Balotelli.[14][15][16][17][18] They lived in the town of Concesio, Brescia, in northern Italy.[19]

At first, he stayed with the Balotelli family during the weekdays and returned to his biological parents on weekends. He later was permanently fostered by the Balotellis full-time and adopted their surname.[20] In June 2012, he dedicated his goals that put Italy in the final of the Euro 2012 football championships to his foster mother Silvia.[10][21] Balotelli had to wait until his 18th birthday to request Italian citizenship, as his foster family had not adopted him. He officially gained citizenship in Concesio on 13 August 2008.[22] After the ceremony he released the following statement
Having had an unsuccessful trial with Barcelona at age 15,[5] Balotelli was signed by Inter Milan in 2006 on loan with a pre-set price of €150,000 to co-own the player.[25] In June 2007, Inter exercised the option and purchased the other half for an additional €190,000.[25] On 8 November 2007, as part of Sheffield F.C.'s 150th anniversary celebrations, Balotelli featured in a friendly between the two sides at Sheffield United's Bramall Lane. The game finished 5–2 to Inter, with Balotelli scoring twice.[26] He made his first team and Serie A debut on 16 December 2007, replacing David Suazo in a 2–0 win against Cagliari.[27] Three days later, he was featured in the starting lineup in a Coppa Italia match against Reggina, scoring two goals in a 4–1 win.[28] Balotelli gained national attention after he scored two goals against Juventus in the return leg of the Coppa Italia quarter-finals, being instrumental in a 3–2 away win for Inter.[29] His first Serie A goal then came in April 2008 in a 2–0 away win against Atalanta.[30] Inter went on to win the 2007–08 Serie A.[31] Balotelli was a substitute in the 2008 Supercoppa Italiana final against Roma; he came on as a replacement for Luís Figo, scoring in the 83rd minute. Inter went on to win the final 6–5 on penalties after the match ended 2–2
In November 2008, Balotelli became the youngest Inter player (at 18 years and 85 days) to score in the UEFA Champions League when he scored a goal in a 3–3 draw against Cypriot side Anorthosis Famagusta, beating the previous record set by Obafemi Martins (at 18 years and 145 days).[33] In an April 2009 match with Juventus where he scored Inter's only goal in a 1–1 draw, Balotelli was racially abused by Juventus fans throughout the match. This led Inter owner Massimo Moratti to say he would have pulled the team off the pitch had he been present.[34] The racist chants were also condemned by Juventus chairman Giovanni Cobolli Gigli, and Juventus were issued a one-match home-fan ban because of the incident.[35] Inter won Serie A for the fourth time in a row.[36]

In his second season with Inter, Balotelli had several disciplinary problems, most notably involving head coach José Mourinho, who excluded him from the first team in the second half of January 2009. Earlier that season, Mourinho had accused Balotelli of showing a lack of effort in training, saying, "[A]s far as I'm concerned, a young boy like him cannot allow himself to train less than people like Figo, Córdoba, and Zanetti."[37] Balotelli continued to be the subject of racist chants throughout the season, becoming the focus of Juventus fans even during matches not involving Inter, leading to Juventus being fined twice and the club ultimately punished with a partial stadium closure.[38]

Balotelli's disciplinary problems and his difficult relationship with Mourinho continued in the 2009–10 season. In November 2009, Inter drew 1–1 against Roma, after which Mourinho criticized his players, going as far as saying Balotelli "came close to a zero rating".[39] Balotelli had another negative encounter with Juventus fans in the heated Derby d'Italia encounter in an away match against Juventus on 5 December 2009, which Inter lost 2–1. When he was elbowed by Juventus midfielder Felipe Melo in the shoulder, Balotelli fell theatrically onto the pitch, for which he was booked, while Melo was sent off for a second yellow card. The incident sparked an altercation between Balotelli's teammate Thiago Motta and Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon.[40][41][42] The tension between Balotelli and Mourinho reached its peak on the eve of the UEFA Champions League second leg against Chelsea after the young striker was not called-up, following an altercation with his manager.[43] Despite Inter's 1–0 win at Stamford Bridge, Balotelli was criticized by several senior players, including captain Javier Zanetti[44] and veteran defender Marco Materazzi, as well as by his own agent.[45] In March 2010, he came under heavy criticism from fans after he publicly sported a Milan shirt on the Italian show Striscia la Notizia.[46]

Balotelli released a statement of apology in Inter's official website that read:

I am sorry for the situation that has been created recently. I am the first person who has suffered because I adore football and I want to play, and now I am waiting in silence so I can return to being useful to my team. I want to put the past behind me, look to the future and concentrate on the upcoming commitments and make myself ready.

— Mario Balotelli[47]
After a falling-out with Mourinho, Balotelli was recalled for Inter's April 2010 match against Bologna, and he marked his return with a goal in their 3–0 win.[48] He again caused controversy in the Champions League semi-final against Barcelona on 20 April 2010 when he threw his shirt on the ground after the final whistle in response to Inter fans who had booed him for his poor performance.[49] He admitted three years later the incident was the only regret in his life.[50] Disgruntled fans confronted and tried to attack Balotelli after the match. His behavior on the pitch brought disapproval from his teammates, with Javier Zanetti publicly saying, "Mario needs to focus on doing what he can do on the pitch, he can't allow himself to behave like this."[51] Amid these controversies with his club and manager, many English Premier League teams, including Manchester United and Manchester City, indicated they were interested in signing Balotelli in July 2010.[52]

Manchester City
2010–11
After weeks of speculation, Inter reached an agreement for Balotelli's transfer to Manchester City on 12 August 2010 for a €21.8 million fee.[53][54] At Manchester City, Balotelli reunited with his former head coach at Inter, Roberto Mancini,[55] who said, "His style of play will suit the Premier League, and because he is still so young there is a big chance for him to improve. He is a strong and exciting player, and City fans will enjoy watching him."[55] Balotelli exchanged squad number with teammate Greg Cunningham so he could continue to wear the number 45 shirt.
On 19 August 2010, Balotelli came on as a substitute to score in his debut against Romanian side Politehnica Timișoara in a 1–0 away win in the UEFA Europa League,[57] but during the match, injured the lateral meniscus in his right knee and on 8 September, underwent surgery that sidelined him until October.[58] Balotelli eventually made his Premier League debut on 24 October as a substitute in a 3–0 home defeat to Arsenal,[59] then made his first Premier League start on 30 October in a 2–1 away defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers.[60] Balotelli scored his first and second Premier League goals on 7 November in a 2–0 away win to West Bromwich Albion.[61] In the same game Balotelli received a red card for violent conduct as the result of a clash with Youssuf Mulumbu, which his manager Roberto Mancini described as unfair.[62] Balotelli scored the first two of City's three goals in the 3–0 win over Red Bull Salzburg in Manchester City's Europa League group stage match.[63]

On 21 December 2010, Balotelli won the Golden Boy Award, saying only one of the past winners was slightly better than he was: Lionel Messi. He also claimed not to know of Arsenal's Jack Wilshere, the player he narrowly beat to the award.[64] On 28 December, Balotelli scored his first Premier League hat-trick in a 4–0 win over Aston Villa.[65] Despite this success, Balotelli still had disciplinary problems, and in March 2011, he was sent off in the second leg of Manchester City's Europa League draw with Dynamo Kyiv.[66] On 14 May, Balotelli was named man of the match in the 2011 FA Cup Final as Manchester City defeated Stoke City 1–0 to win their first trophy in 35 years.[67]

2011–12
Balotelli scored his first goal of the 2011–12 campaign in a 2–0 League Cup win against Birmingham City. He followed this up with the opening goal against Everton three days later. On 1 October 2011, he scored his third goal in as many matches in a 4–0 win away to Blackburn Rovers. Balotelli scored the opening two goals and forced the dismissal of Jonny Evans as City defeated Manchester United 6–1 at Old Trafford on 23 October in what would prove to be a decisive game in helping win Manchester City the Premier League title.[69] Balotelli made his UEFA Champions League debut for City on 2 November in the second leg against Villarreal. He scored on a penalty shot near the end of the first half, his first Champions League goal for City and his seventh goal overall in the season.[70] On 27 November, Balotelli came on as a 65th-minute substitute against Liverpool and was sent off after receiving two yellow cards.[71] Balotelli scored using his right shoulder in City's 5–1 win over Norwich City on 3 December.[72] He put City 1–0 up against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge after just two minutes on 12 December, although Chelsea rallied to win 2–1.[73]

On 22 January 2012, Balotelli came on as a substitute during a match against Tottenham Hotspur. He appeared to stamp on Scott Parker during the match against Tottenham, but, already booked, did not receive a second yellow from referee Howard Webb, who did not see the incident.[74] Balotelli subsequently scored his first goal of 2012, an injury-time penalty which secured a 3–2 win for City.[75] He was charged for violent conduct for the kick against Scott Parker and was suspended for four matches, three for violent conduct and one for his second sending off.[74] On 25 February, Balotelli scored his tenth league goal of the season in a 3–0 home win against Blackburn.[76] He scored again the following game in a 2–0 win against Bolton Wanderers.[77] On 31 March, Balotelli scored twice as City drew 3–3 at home against Sunderland. However, Balotelli was criticized for his actions in the match after squabbling with Aleksandar Kolarov over a free kick. Roberto Mancini claimed after the match he had considered substituting Balotelli just five minutes into the match.[78] On 8 April 2012, Balotelli received his fourth red card of the season after receiving his second yellow card during the match for a tackle against Bacary Sagna during City's 1–0 loss to Arsenal in April 2012.[79] Balotelli was banned for three matches (one for the two yellow cards and two for the previous two red cards in the same season).[80] After the Arsenal match, Mancini appeared to have finally lost his patience with Balotelli, suggesting Balotelli would not play any part in the remainder of City's season and be sold by the club.[81] Despite this, Balotelli did make an appearance as a late substitute in the last match of the season, a title-deciding match against Queens Park Rangers. Balotelli provided the assist to striker Sergio Agüero, who scored in the 94th minute to give City their first league title since 1968.[82]

2012–13
In December 2012, Balotelli decided to fight against Manchester City's decision to fine him two weeks' wages for his poor disciplinary record the previous season by taking his club to a Premier League tribunal. Balotelli missed 11 matches domestically and in Europe last season because of suspensions. With less than a day remaining to the start of the hearing, Balotelli dropped his tribunal action and accepted the fine.[83]

Milan
2012–13
On 29 January 2013, Milan's organising director Umberto Gandini announced the club had agreed to sign Balotelli from Manchester City on a four-and-a-half-year deal rumoured to be worth €20 million plus bonuses and add-ons.[85] Manchester City's then manager Roberto Mancini suggested he had sanctioned Balotelli's sale to Milan for the good of the player, describing the forward as "like another one of my children" and saying Balotelli could become one of the best players in the world when restored to Serie A.[86] On 31 January 2013, the Serie A giants completed the signing,[87] and Balotelli was awarded the number 45 shirt, the same number he wore for Inter Milan and Manchester City. Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani said, "Balotelli in Rossoneri is a dream that has been realized. It is a transfer that everyone wanted: club, president and fans."[88] Balotelli received a warm reception when he returned to Milan. His arrival saw some fans scuffling with police and one policeman was taken to hospital with head injuries.[89] It was said Silvio Berlusconi's signing of Balotelli would help him gain extra votes in the 2013 Italian general election.[90]

On 3 February 2013, Balotelli made his debut for Milan and scored two goals, including a last minute penalty, to earn a 2–1 victory over Udinese. The win lifted Milan to fourth in the table, ahead of Inter Milan on goal difference.[91] In the next two matches, Balotelli scored two goals, including 30 yards (27 m) free-kick against Parma.[92] With that goal, he equaled Oliver Bierhoff's record of four goals in first three matches for Milan.[93] In his fifth appearance, Balotelli appeared as a substitute against Genoa and scored his fifth goal for his new club.[94] In the match against Palermo, Balotelli continued his impressive scoring streak with two more goals, one from a penalty and another from an M'Baye Niang cross.[95] Balotelli then scored four goals in three consecutive matches: one against Catania, one against Torino and two against Pescara.[96][97][98] On 12 May 2013, Balotelli was subjected to racist chants by some of the Roma fans, which prompted the match to be suspended for several minutes by referee Gianluca Rocchi, in an eventual 0–0 away draw.[99]

On the final day of the season, Balotelli scored his 12th goal in 13 matches for Milan as the team defeated Siena to qualify for the 2013–14 UEFA Champions League.[100] He ended his first season with Milan with 12 goals in 13 appearances as Milan finished third in Serie A.

2013–14
On 22 September 2013, Balotelli missed a penalty in a competitive match for the first time in 22 attempts as a professional; the kick was saved by Pepe Reina as Milan lost 2–1 to Napoli.[101] During a match against Catania on 1 December, Balotelli accused opponent Nicolás Spolli of racially abusing him, but there was insufficient evidence for any action to be taken.[102] The following week, Balotelli scored two goals in a 2–2 draw with Livorno, including a sensational 30-yard direct free kick that was clocked at a speed of 109 km/h.[103]

Liverpool
2014–15
In August 2014, Balotelli joined Liverpool for a £16 million transfer fee to replace the outgoing Luis Suárez.[104][105][106] He made his Liverpool debut in a league game away to Tottenham Hotspur on 31 August, a game Liverpool won 3–0.[107] Balotelli scored his first Liverpool goal on 16 September, opening a 2–1 Anfield victory against Ludogorets Razgrad in the group stage of the 2014–15 UEFA Champions League.[108] In a match in the same competition on 22 October against Real Madrid, Balotelli was criticised by manager Brendan Rodgers for swapping shirts with opponent Pepe at half time, saying, "It's something that doesn't happen here and shouldn't happen here."[109]

On 18 December 2014, Balotelli was suspended for one match and fined £25,000 for posting an image on social media which appeared to contain anti-Semitic and racist references.[110]

Balotelli's first Premier League goal for Liverpool came on his 13th appearance, on 10 February 2015, an 83rd-minute winner in a 3–2 victory over Tottenham Hotspur at Anfield, nine minutes after replacing Daniel Sturridge.[111] He scored just 4 goals in 28 appearances and at season's end and was adjudged by many to be among the worst signings of the season.[112][113]

Return to Milan on loan
On 27 August 2015, Balotelli returned to Milan on season-long loan deal.[114] On 22 September, he scored his first goal after returning to Milan on his third appearance to open the scoring in the fifth minute from a free kick at 25 yards out against Udinese in a 3–2 away win.[115] However, a week later, he suffered a groin injury in a 1–0 defeat to Genoa on 27 September, requiring surgery and ruling him out for three months.[116] He returned to action, coming on as a substitute on 17 January 2016 in a 2–0 home win over Fiorentina,[117] before scoring the lone goal from the penalty spot nine days later during the first semi final leg of the Coppa Italia against Alessandria[118] as he helped Milan reach the final of the tournament.[119] On 1 May, he had his penalty saved in a 3–3 home draw against Frosinone, for which he was mocked by opponent Mirko Gori.[120] Balotelli finished the season with only 1 goal in 20 league appearances[121] as Milan finished the season in seventh place, once again failing to qualify for Europe following their 1–0 defeat to Juventus in the 2016 Coppa Italia Final.[119][120]

Balotelli returned to Liverpool in the middle of 2016, but with no future under new manager Jürgen Klopp, who chose not to include him on Liverpool's pre-season tour to the United States or any of the club's other friendlies.[122]

Nice
2016–17

On 31 August 2016, the deadline day for the summer transfer window, it was announced Balotelli had joined Nice of the French Ligue 1 on a free transfer, signing a one-year deal.[123] In an interview leading up to his Nice debut on 11 September, Balotelli told Canal Plus that joining Liverpool in the summer of 2014 was the "worst mistake of his life" and that Brendan Rodgers and Jürgen Klopp (the two Liverpool managers during Balotelli's time at the club) did not make a good impression on him and he did not get along with them.[124] He made his debut for Nice, starting in a home Ligue 1 match against Marseille, converting a penalty in the 7th minute and scoring a header from Ricardo's cross in the 78th minute as Nice won the match 3–2.[125] On 21 September, Balotelli, in only his second Ligue 1 appearance, struck another double in the 30th and 68th minutes as Nice thrashed Monaco 4–0 in the Azurean derby at the Allianz Riviera to go to the top of Ligue 1.[126] No other player had scored four goals in their first two Ligue 1 matches in the last 25 years.[127] On 29 September, Balotelli scored his fifth goal in just four competitive matches for Nice when he fired home a right-footed shot from just outside the penalty area in the 43rd minute after an assist from Malang Sarr in a 2016–17 UEFA Europa League Group I match against Krasnodar in an eventual 5–2 away defeat. That was his first goal in a UEFA club competition since February 2015, when he scored for Liverpool against Beşiktaş in the round of 32 of the 2014–15 UEFA Europa League knockout phase.[128][129] On 2 October, Balotelli scored the winning goal in the 86th minute by sending a powerful kick from the edge of the box into the top right corner as Nice defeated Lorient 2–1 in a home Ligue 1 match, during which he received a yellow card for taking off his shirt in celebration of his goal and was subsequently sent off minutes later in stoppage time after receiving a second, controversial yellow card following an altercation with Lorient's Steven Moreira, where neither player appeared to do anything wrong.[130][131] Balotelli's red card was rescinded four days later after referee Olivier Thual's admission he had made a mistake in showing Balotelli the second yellow card and the French Football League's Disciplinary Commission decided to annul his second yellow card, thus allowing him to be available for the following league match.[132] On 21 December, he received his first official red card in a Nice shirt in a 0–0 Ligue 1 away draw with Bordeaux for kicking Igor Lewczuk.[133]

On 20 January 2017, after the 1–1 Ligue 1 away draw against Bastia, Balotelli claimed on Instagram he was a victim of racist abuse when fans of the Corsican club allegedly made monkey noises directed at him during the match and just prior to the start of the match. On the following day, Alassane Pléa (Balotelli's Nice teammate) confirmed he had heard the monkey noises directed at Balotelli. The Ligue de Football Professionnel (LFP) announced an investigation into Balotelli's allegations.[134][135] On 18 February 2017, Balotelli was sent off once again, in his 14th Ligue 1 appearance, a 1–0 win at Lorient; he received a straight red card in the second half for insulting referee Tony Chapron in English.[136][137] He was given a two-match ban (the second match was a suspended ban that would be triggered in the event of any further misconduct by Balotelli) by the Ligue 1's disciplinary committee on 23 February. [138][139] On the same day, the Ligue 1's disciplinary committee ordered Bastia to close part of their stadium for three matches and imposed a suspended one-point deduction on them for "the behaviour of the supporters of SC Bastia – shouts with racist connotations towards Balotelli, use of pyrotechnic devices and intrusion of supporters at the edge of the field".[140][141] On 10 March 2017, Balotelli reached ten Ligue 1 goals for the season, scoring in a 2–2 draw with Caen.[142]

2017–18

On 25 June 2017, Balotelli signed a one-year contract extension with Nice.[143] On 26 July, he played his first match of the season in Nice's UEFA Champions League qualifying round first leg, in which he scored in their 1–1 draw against Ajax.[144]

Balotelli finished the season with a career-high 18 league goals and a further 8 goals across all other competitions. His strong form earned him a recall to the Italy national team for the first time since the 2014 FIFA World Cup four years prior.[145]

2018–19

On 20 August 2018, Balotelli re-signed with Nice on a third consecutive one-year contract after a move to rivals Marseille fell through earlier in the summer.[147]

In spite of penning a new deal with the Cote d'Azur club, Balotelli appeared late and out-of-shape for pre-season training, and did not play the first three league matches due to a court suspension. His struggling form at the start of the season, as well as his growing conflict with the new coach Patrick Vieira, saw Balotelli left out of the first-team squad after making only 10 league appearances.[148] Vieira later announced that Balotelli would not be renewing his contract with Nice and that he would likely leave during the January transfer window.[149]

Marseille

On 23 January 2019, Balotelli terminated his contract with Nice and signed a contract until the end of the season with Marseille.[150] On 25 January, he made his debut for the club coming on as a substitute in the 74th minute home to Lille, later also scoring his first goal in the last minute of stoppage time of an ultimate 2–1 loss.[151] He scored his fourth league goal on 3 March, an acrobatic volley in a 2–0 home win against Saint-Étienne; he later celebrated the goal by creating an Instagram story on the pitch from his cell phone.[152] On 30 March, he became the first player since Josip Skoblar in the late 1960s to score in each of his first five home games for Marseille in Ligue 1.[153]

Brescia

On 18 August 2019, Balotelli signed a "multi-year contract" with his hometown club Brescia on a free transfer. He signed for a base salary of €1.5 million before bonuses for one year, with an automatic renewal if the club avoids relegation.[154]

On 24 September 2019, Balotelli made his debut for the club in a 2–1 home league defeat against Juventus; he was unable to play prior to this owing to the four-match suspension he received while at Marseille for a rash challenge against Montpellier.[155] On 29 September, he scored his first goal for the club in a 2–1 away loss to Napoli.[156] On 3 November 2019, Balotelli was subjected to racist chants by some of the Hellas Verona fans, prompting him to pick up the ball in the 54th minute and kick it into the crowd. He started to walk off as the match was suspended for several minutes, but was persuaded by players of both sides to stay on the pitch; he later scored in the 85th minute of a 2–1 away loss.[157][158]

Balotelli scored Brescia's lone goal in a 1–2 defeat against Lazio on 5 January 2020. During the match, he was once again the subject of racist taunts from the opponent's fan base and afterwards Balotelli took to social media to condemn the attacks.[159] The Serie A found Lazio supporters guilty of racial abuse but only fined the club €20,000 and they avoided more serious punishment by not having a stadium ban imposed on them.[160]

International career

Youth career

Balotelli was unable to answer call-ups to the Italian national under-15 and under-17 teams as he was still considered to be a Ghanaian immigrant.[161]

On 7 August 2007, five days before his 17th birthday, Balotelli received his first senior international call-up for Ghana from their coach Claude Le Roy for a friendly against Senegal at the New Den stadium in London, England, on 21 August 2007.[162] He declined the offer, citing once again his willingness to play for Italy when he became eligible.[163] He also expressed his willingness to represent Italy at international level once he acquired an Italian passport.[164]

Italy under-21 head coach Pierluigi Casiraghi announced his intention to call-up Balotelli once he obtained Italian citizenship. On 13 August 2008, Balotelli was finally issued Italian citizenship

Casiraghi called him to join the Italy national under-21 football team Azzurrini on 29 August for the matches against Greece and Croatia.[167] In his debut on 5 September 2008, he scored his first international goal in a 1–1 draw with Greece.

Balotelli was named in the final 23-man squad for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championships and scored the opening goal against the hosts Sweden in the 23rd minute. Barely 15 minutes later, he was shown a red card for retaliating against Swedish midfielder Pontus Wernbloom.[168] Italy were eliminated by eventual champions Germany in the semi-finals following a 1–0 defeat.[169]

Early senior career

On 10 August 2010, Balotelli made his first appearance for the Italy senior team, as part of the squad announced by new head coach Cesare Prandelli, in a friendly match against the Ivory Coast, Italy's first match after the 2010 World Cup.[170] In that match he started alongside debutant Amauri and striker Antonio Cassano in a 1–0 loss.[171] On 11 November 2011, Balotelli scored his first senior international goal in a 2–0 win against Poland at Stadion Miejski in Wrocław, Poland, also setting up Italy's second goal of the match.[172]

UEFA Euro 2012

Before the tournament in Poland and Ukraine, Balotelli was interviewed by a newspaper about racism amongst fans in the host countries. During the interview, Balotelli reiterated his threat to walk off the pitch if any of the opposition fans racially abused him in any way, and said that he would "kill" anyone that threw a banana at him. He spoke about his increasing fears that black players would be targeted by racists and that he refused to accept racism in any form, talking of his past experience of racism in football, notably during his time playing in Serie A for Inter Milan.[173] During the build-up to the competition, Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini had repeatedly defended Balotelli, but he and footballer Daniele De Rossi believed Balotellki would need to grow up and mature if he was going to become the centrepiece of future Italian success.[174]

On 10 June 2012, Balotelli also became the first black player to appear for Italy in a major tournament (UEFA European Championship or FIFA World Cup) in a 1–1 draw against Spain, Italy's first match of UEFA Euro 2012. Italy and Spain later played each other for the second time in the tournament in Kiev. During the 1–1 draw, Balotelli failed to make an impact and he was substituted off during the 56th minute after missing multiple chances, including a one-on-one with Spanish goalkeeper Iker Casillas just minutes before being substituted off. His replacement was Antonio Di Natale, who managed to secure his 11th international goal and put Italy ahead within his time on the pitch. With Balotelli continuing his run of poor form for Italy, fans and critics began calling for Di Natale to replace the "immature and unpredictable striker".[175][176][177]

Later in the tournament, on 18 June 2012, Mario Balotelli scored his first goal in a major international tournament in a 2–0 victory against the Republic of Ireland. When he attempted to celebrate this goal, he was immediately halted by teammate Leonardo Bonucci, who covered Balotelli's mouth with his hand for fear that the striker would say something to "get in trouble".[178] Balotelli had been dropped to the bench by Cesare Prandelli prior to the match due to his lack of ability shown in his previous group matches, so when he was substituted on against Ireland, fans did not expect him to have much of an impact and his celebration of his goal may have originally been directed towards the naysayers who believe he is bad for the team. Balotelli went on to start against England in the quarter-finals. His performance was described as "wasteful", but his effort was rated highly in a match where he missed multiple chances. He scored the first penalty taken in the shootout against his Manchester City teammate Joe Hart.[179] On 28 June, Balotelli scored twice within the first 40 minutes in Italy's semi-final clash with Germany, as the Azzurri won 2–1 and progressed to the Euro 2012 final against European and world champions Spain.[180] After scoring the second goal in that semi-final, he ripped off his shirt and stood motionless as he flexed his muscles, developing a famous celebration.[181] Going into the final, Balotelli said Manchester City's title success meant failure in the Euro would not signal a personal failure this season. He also said he was unfazed by the pressure he supposedly had on his shoulders entering the final, with new high expectations of him from his home supporters after his amazing performance against Germany.[182]

During the tournament, Balotelli was subject to a case of racial abuse during the game against Croatia, which led UEFA to fine the Croatian Football Federation €80,000.[183] Italy were defeated 4–0 in the final by Spain.[184] Despite the heavy defeat, Balotelli was named as part of the Euro 2012 Team of the Tournament due to his performances.[185] With three goals, Balotelli finished the tournament as the joint top scorer along with five other players, although the Golden Boot ultimately went to Fernando Torres because of his assist in the Euro 2012 final.[186]

2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying

After establishing himself in the side at Euro 2012, Balotelli remained the first choice striker for Italy's 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

On 21 March 2013, Balotelli scored a long-range equaliser in a friendly match against Brazil at the Stade de Genève.[187] Five days later, he scored both goals as Italy defeated Malta in a World Cup qualifier, continuing his prolific scoring streak for both club and country since signing for Milan.[188]

On 7 June 2013, Balotelli was sent-off in a 0–0 draw with the Czech Republic in Prague.[189] On 10 September 2013, Balotelli scored the winning goal in a World Cup qualifying match against the Czech Republic in Turin which allowed Italy to clinch the first place spot in their qualifying group and ultimately achieve their objective of qualifying for the 2014 World Cup.[190] Balotelli finished the 2014 World Cup qualifying campaign as Italy's top scorer with five goals. He was also the top scorer of his qualifying group, helping Italy to win their group undefeated.

2013 FIFA Confederations Cup

On 3 June 2013, Balotelli was named in Italy's squad for the 2013 FIFA Confederations Cup.[191] In Italy's opening match on 16 June, Balotelli scored a late-winner, helping Italy to beat Mexico 2–1.[192] In Italy's next group match with Japan, Balotelli scored a penalty to make it 3–2 after being 2–0 down in the first half. This was also his tenth goal for Italy, making him the second-youngest player after Giuseppe Meazza to achieve this tally. Italy went on to win the match 4–3, which allowed them to participate in the semi-finals of the Confederations Cup for the first time in their history.[193][194][195] In Italy's final group match against hosts and eventual champions Brazil, Balotelli set up Emanuele Giaccherini's equaliser with a back-heel, although Italy eventually lost 4–2.[196] Prior to the semi-final, Balotelli suffered a thigh injury that prevented him from playing in the remainder of the tournament.[197] Italy finished the tournament in third place after defeating Uruguay in a play-off.[198]

2014 FIFA World Cup

On 1 June 2014, Balotelli was selected in Italy's squad for the 2014 World Cup.[199] In Italy's opening match of the tournament, he scored the team's winning goal in a 2–1 victory over England on 14 June.[200] After the match, Balotelli said playing in the World Cup for the first time was "a wonderful sensation to experience" and dedicated the goal to his "future wife" Fanny Neguesha, whom he ultimately did not marry.[201] Italy lost their next two matches and were eliminated in the first round, finishing third in their group. Cesare Prandelli subsequently resigned as Italy manager.[202]

2014–present: post-World Cup

Under Italy's new manager Antonio Conte, Balotelli only received one call-up in November 2014 but was unable to make a single appearance for Italy due to injury. After a lacklustre season with Milan,[203] he was omitted from Conte's 23-man squad for UEFA Euro 2016.[204][121]

After Italy failed to qualify for the 2018 World Cup, Balotelli was expected to be called up by caretaker manager Luigi Di Biagio[205][206] for Italy's March 2018 friendlies, after the replacement of Gian Piero Ventura. However, Balotelli was officially omitted from the squad on 17 March 2018.[207]

On 19 May 2018, Balotelli was called up for the first time since November 2014 by newly appointed manager Roberto Mancini for Italy's May and June 2018 friendlies.[208] On 28 May, Balotelli made his first appearance for the national team since the 2014 World Cup, starting in the match against Saudi Arabia and scoring the opener in the 20th minute. He was later substituted in the 58th minute for Andrea Belotti, who scored the second goal of the match in an eventual 2–1 victory.[209] Balotelli dedicated his goal to former Italy teammate Davide Astori, who died earlier in the year.[210]

Style of play

June Brown

June Muriel Brown, MBE (born 16 February 1927) is an English actress, known for her role as Dot Cotton in the BBC soap opera EastEnders from 1985 until 1993, again from 1997 until 2020. In 2005, she won Best Actress at the Inside Soap Awards, and in the same year, also received the Lifetime Achievement award at the British Soap Awards. In 2009, she was nominated for the BAFTA TV Award for Best Actress, but lost out to Anna Maxwell Martin. She is the second performer to receive a BAFTA nomination for their work in a soap opera (the first was Jean Alexander).

She was awarded the Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours for services to Drama and to Charity.
Early life and family
Brown was born in Needham Market, Suffolk in 1927, the daughter of Louisa Ann (née Butler) and Henry William Melton Brown.[3] She was one of five children, although her baby brother John Peter died of pneumonia in 1932, aged 15 days, and her elder sister, Marise, died in 1934, aged eight, from a meningitis-like illness. Other than English, she has Irish, Scottish, Italian, and Sephardic Jewish descent from Oran, Algeria.[4][5] On her maternal grandmother's side, Brown is descended from the Jewish bare knuckle boxer Isaac Bitton.[6]

Brown was educated at St John's Church of England School in Ipswich and then won a scholarship to Ipswich High School where she passed the school certificate examinations.[7] During the Second World War, she was evacuated to Pontyates, a village in Wales. During the later years of the war, she served in the Wrens, and was classically trained at The Old Vic Theatre School in Lambeth.[8]

At 23, Brown met and married actor John Garley; he suffered from depression and took his own life in 1957. In 1958, she married Robert Arnold,[9] a regular in the BBC television programme Dixon of Dock Green. Brown and Arnold had six children in seven years, one of whom died in infancy.[10] The couple were together for forty-five years, until he died in 2003 of Lewy body dementia. Since then she has lived alone in Surrey.[11] She is a supporter of the Conservative Party, and told an interviewer for The Guardian: "I wouldn't vote Labour, dear, if you paid me. I vote Conservative".[12]

Like her EastEnders character, Brown is a Christian.[13]

Film and television career
Brown has had a long television career, with small roles in Coronation Street as Mrs Parsons (1970–71); the Play for Today, Edna, the Inebriate Woman as Clara (1971); the Doctor Who story The Time Warrior as Lady Eleanor (1973/74); the medical soap Angels; the history-of-Britain Churchill's People; long-running comedy drama Minder; the police drama soap The Bill; and cult sci-fi series Survivors. She had a bigger part as Mrs Leyton in the costume drama The Duchess of Duke Street (1976), and played Mrs Mann in Oliver Twist (1985).

She has also starred in the wartime big band comedy Ain't Misbehavin (1997), and played Nanny Slagg in the BBC's big-budget production of Gormenghast in 2000. She had a number of small roles in several movies, appearing as the grieving mother of an undead biker in British horror flick Psychomania (1971), as well as Sunday Bloody Sunday (1971), Sitting Target (1972), The 14 (1973), Murder by Decree (1979), Nijinsky (1980), The Mambo Kings (1992) and the Mr. Bean movie spin-off Bean (1997). She also appeared as Tom Hedden's wife in Straw Dogs (1971), although her scenes were cut from the film. In 1984, she featured in the TV mini-series Lace which starred actress Phoebe Cates.

In 2006, Brown appeared as Aunt Spiker at the Children's Party At The Palace, an all-star event to celebrate the Queen's 80th birthday. In 2010, Brown took part in the annual Christmas special of Strictly Come Dancing. Brown said "I'm terrified and apprehensive about what I've let myself in for, I must be barmy and I'm not sure what's come over me... I just hope I can remember the steps to the routines. I'm looking forward to working with the professional dancers and the other contestants."[14] Her dancing partner was Vincent Simone, with whom she danced the tango.

In July 2012, Brown hosted a documentary for the BBC called Respect Your Elders, which looked at society's treatment and attitudes towards the elderly.[15]

EastEnders and Dot
Brown was recommended to producers for the role of Dot Cotton in EastEnders by one of its original cast members, Leslie Grantham, who played Den Watts. Brown has played the role since 1985, with a break between 1993 and 1997.

On 31 January 2008, Brown became the first and, as of 2020, only soap actor to carry an entire episode single-handed. The episode, titled "Pretty Baby....", featured a monologue looking back over her character's life, dictated to a cassette machine for her husband Jim to listen to in hospital following a stroke. The fact that co-star and close friend John Bardon (who played Jim) was recovering from a stroke in real life added extra pathos to the episode.[16] In 2009, Brown was nominated for the British Academy Television Award for Best Actress.[17] Brown's nomination came as a result of her "single-hander" episode of EastEnders, the director of which she praised.[18]

On 30 April 2012, it was announced that Brown would take a six-month break from EastEnders and planned to write her autobiography during her time off.[19] In October 2012, it was announced she had returned to filming, and she appeared on screen again from January 2013.[20]

In May 2015, Brown revealed that her eyesight is failing due to macular degeneration.[21] Later, in 2016, a storyline for Dot where her eyesight was deteriorating was introduced. Speaking about the condition in April 2019, Brown said that it had worsened since undergoing surgery in 2017, and that she does not go out socially because of her eyesight: "I never go to soap awards or suchlike now. I don't recognise people that I know and they would think I was snubbing them."[22]

On 20 February 2020, Brown announced she had left EastEnders.[23]

Theatre roles
Brown has also been active in British theatre. She directed Pin Money by Malcolm Needs in London, and Double D by Matthew Westwood in Edinburgh and London. She played Mrs Danvers in a touring production of Rebecca. Other plays include An Inspector Calls, The Lion in Winter, A View from the Bridge, and numerous pantomimes. During her early career, she played the roles of Hedda Gabler and Lady Macbeth.

In 2009, Brown played Jessie in the West End production of Calendar Girls at the Noël Coward Theatre. Also in the play were former EastEnders stars Anita Dobson (Angie Watts), Jill Halfpenny (Kate Mitchell) and Jack Ryder (Jamie Mitchell).

Judy Finnigan

Judith Adele Finnigan (born 16 May 1948) is an English television presenter and writer, who co-presented ITV's This Morning (1988–2001, 2019–) and the Channel 4 chat show, Richard & Judy (2001–2008) alongside her husband Richard Madeley. Her debut novel Eloise, published in 2012, was a Sunday Times bestseller. Her second novel, I Do Not Sleep, was published in 2015.
Early life
Finnigan was born in Newton Heath, Manchester, on 16 May 1948. The second of three children, she has two brothers: Callum, who is older and Roger, who is younger. Finnigan attended the local Briscoe Lane Primary School. Finnigan then went on to attend Manchester High School for Girls, an independent school in the city, and later studied English and Drama at Bristol University.

Career
In 1971, Finnigan joined Granada Television as a researcher and in 1974, she moved to Anglia Television in Norwich to become the first female reporter on the About Anglia news team. In 1980, Finnigan returned to Granada in Manchester, working on a range of programmes including Flying Start (with Anthony Wilson), Granada Reports and Scramble.

This Morning
The couple's best known programme was This Morning, which they hosted from 1988 until 2001. The series, a mix of celebrity interviews, household tips, cookery and phone-ins lasted approximately two hours each weekday morning on ITV. This live show set the standard for daytime fare in British television throughout the 1990s. It first aired in October 1988 and was broadcast from the Albert Dock in Liverpool, although production moved to London in 1996. Madeley and Finnigan were so closely associated with the show, that many people referred to the show as This Morning with Richard and Judy or simply Richard and Judy. In December 2000, at the 6th National Television Awards, This Morning won the Daytime Programme category. Both Richard and Judy accepted the award, in which Finnigan suffered a wardrobe malfunction which exposed her bra and breast to the audience at the Royal Albert Hall and millions of television viewers. Once Madeley had noticed the malfunction, he sharply quipped "If you vote for us next year, she'll show you both of them!" much to the delight of the whooping audience.[citation needed]

The pair have returned to the show as guests since leaving. In October 2013, they were guests for the show's 25th birthday show live from the Albert Dock in Liverpool – the original home of This Morning.[1]

Richard & Judy
In 2001, the couple left This Morning, having been approached by Channel 4[2] to host a similar show, simply called Richard & Judy, shown for an hour in the early evenings.

The show was produced by Cactus TV, run by Jonathan Ross' brother, Simon Ross and his wife Amanda. In February 2007, the couple publicly apologised live on air due to the discovery of a TV quiz phone scam regarding the daily phone in You Say We Pay. On the same show, Madeley and Finnigan made the decision to suspend the daily quiz until further notice. Later that week, the media confirmed that police investigations would be pursued, meaning the couple could be subject to a police interview. Channel 4 have admitted the scam may have been in force for two series of the show. While Madeley and Finnigan urged callers to continue entering, it was confirmed that winners were picked in the first ten minutes of the show. The couple both deny being involved in the scam[3] that was revealed by the Mail on Sunday newspaper after it was sold the story through media publicist Jonathan Hartley.

The television show also launched two very successful "clubs", the Richard & Judy Book Club and the Richard & Judy Wine Club, both of which are similar in style to those made popular by US TV presenter Oprah Winfrey. The book club featured literature by new and unknown writers. One book was reviewed each week and the winner, named "Read of the Year," was announced at an awards ceremony.

In July 2008, Finnigan finally underwent a long-awaited knee operation and took a short leave of absence from the show to recuperate fully from the surgery. During this time, Madeley was joined by guest presenters Emma Bunton and Myleene Klass and on 23 July, he presented the episode on by himself.

On 22 August 2008, the couple's Channel 4 series aired its final episode.

After seven years at Channel 4, Finnigan and Madeley began hosting a topical prime-time chat show on UKTV's new digital channel, Watch. From 7 October 2008, Richard and Judy's New Position aired on weeknights from 8pm. The programme still contained popular features such as the "Book Club" and "Summer Read". The show attracted very low viewing figures, with only 200,000 people for the first episode, and 53,000 for the second. Viewing figures since had consistently fallen, reaching new lows of just 11,000 viewers; their Channel 4 programme would see figures as high as 2,500,000.[4] Consequently, on 8 May 2009, it was announced that the show would end in July, claiming in a statement that viewers "simply couldn't find us
On 13 October 2014, it was announced that Finnigan had joined ITV chat show Loose Women as a regular panellist.[6][7]

On her first day, 13 October 2014, Finnigan was criticised when the panel discussed footballer Ched Evans, who was convicted of rape in 2012 before being acquitted in 2016 after two witnesses, who were offered a £50,000 reward for testimony leading to an acquittal, testified to having consensual sex with Evans' alleged victim around the time of the alleged rape.[8][9] Finnigan stated that Evans should be able to return to his club as "the victim was 'drunk' and the alleged rape was 'unpleasant' but 'not violent'".[10]

ITV received complaints and calls for Finnigan's dismissal, but the network confirmed that she would remain on the programme. Finnigan has thus far made thirteen subsequent appearances on the panel: twice more in October 2014, once in November 2014, four times in January 2015, once in March 2015, once in April 2015, twice in May 2015 and twice in June 2015. She made her most recent appearance on the show in June 2015. Neither Finnigan nor Loose Women has confirmed whether she has left the show. Evans was acquitted of any wrongdoing in October 2016.[8]

Other work
Finnigan presented a series of video-only specials, looking at a particular character of Coronation Street and were released in 1995 to mark the soap's 35th anniversary.

Judy, and her husband, Richard Madeley, were the subjects of This Is Your Life in 1997 when they were surprised by Michael Aspel live on air while broadcasting This Morning.

In 1998, Finnigan also solely presented the ITV Watchdog style show We Can Work It Out in its first series before being taken over by the late Caron Keating.

Madeley and Finnigan co-wrote their autobiography, Richard and Judy: The Autobiography, published in 2002 by Hodder & Stoughton.

In 2012, Judy wrote a novel, Eloise, which became a Sunday Times best seller. She had a second novel, I Do Not Sleep, published in 2015.

Personal life
Finnigan met Madeley in 1982 when they worked on separate programmes for Granada TV. At this time, each was in their first marriage. The couple married in 1986 in Manchester and have two children together, both born in Manchester: Jack Christopher (born 1986) and Chloe Susannah (born 1987). Finnigan has twin sons – Dan and Tom (born 1977) – from her first marriage with journalist David Henshaw