Liverpool balls: ‘troubled’ Mario Balotelli’s ADHT, abandonment issues and kryptonite seatbelt
Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli is the subejct of the Sun story: “Kop star’s secret”:
TROUBLED Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli has shown signs of suffering from attention deficit disorder since he was a youngster, SunSport can reveal.
Nice, eh. Balotelli, the man who holds down a good job and has no criminal record is “troubled”. And it;’s a “secret”, implying that he knows he’s “troubled” but doesn’t want you to know it, too.
The Italian’s mood swings and outrages have been a feature of his life on and off the field and have affected his career with Inter Milan, Manchester City, AC Milan and now Liverpool.
In the old days, he’d have been a typical Italian footballer, albeit less prone to kicking opponents out of the game and boring the crowd to death than most.
But an expert’s study of his behaviour has drawn a more startling but obvious conclusion. He showed symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD).
A recently-published biography on the striker in Italy, Balotelli A Cresta Alta (Balotelli The High Crest), reveals that Vincenzo Esposito, his former coach at Inter’s academy team, consulted with Giovanni Pasculli, an expert in sport psychology.
But there was no diagnosis of ADHT. It’s just one man’s hunch.
Anecdotes to sell the book are many:
Troubled: “We hid in a room to talk about a match and after ten minutes he started to get distracted, to move around.”
Crazed: “Once, I was talking to the boys to prepare them for an important match, he went away and came back licking an ice cream. They all started to laugh.”
Loopy: “Respect for hierarchy wasn’t his strong point.”
Teacher Michele Cavalli, who coached Balotelli at the Leonardo da Vinci school in Brescia between 2003 and 2005, adds:
Bonkers: “I’d regularly see behind my back a shot hitting the crossbar with precision and Mario, without even turning round, would say ‘it wasn’t me’. Unfortunately, he was the only one in the team able to hit the bar every time and from every position.”
A bus driver tells all:
He wants locking up: “The first time he got on my bus he was 11. After ten minutes of travelling I realised the boy wasn’t bad. He simply wasn’t mentally and physically capable of staying sat down. So I had to confine him to the front seats, with the seat belt secured, stopping him from moving. It was for his safety, of course. I was responsible for those kids.”
Only a seatbelt can stop him! A sealtbelt to Mario Balotelli is like kyptonite to Superman.
Everything you read above sounds like a boy being an normal boy. Unless you want to portray the subject as having to-deadline issues…
Noted: The Guardian peered into Balotelli’s head before:
According to an Italian psychologist who specialises in helping adopted children, Balotelli’s errant behaviour has a very simple explanation. “We see this a lot,” says Alessandra Tongiorgi. “Adopted children have, by definition, been abandoned, which means they are wounded and need to convince themselves that the new family adopting them will not abandon them again. So they put them to the test.” Balotelli’s urge to test his family’s unconditional devotion to him could now be shaping his relationship with Italy’s millions of football fans, she suggests. “It is possible his behaviour right now, with his manager and fans, is a continuation of this.”
Clarence Seedorf has the final word: “Journalists have not helped Balotelli’s growth. At times, it’s better to leave him alone.”
Leave him alone…
Posted: 20th, December 2014 | In: Liverpool, Sports Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
