There's been a lot of talk about Mario Balotelli in recent weeks. First there was his suspension for screaming at the referee after the Napoli match, then he shoved a cameraman and to top it all off, his superstar agent, Mino Raiola, came out and said that a move to Chelsea is likely for Mario, considering the possibility of him rejoining Jose Mourinho from their time at Inter together. Of course, this sparked a massive uproar all over the place, as does anything that has to do with Mario Balotelli. Talking about transfer moves in October/November is ridiculous as it is, but to say that such a big name player could be leaving a club so soon to go back to a country he was desperate to get out of is not even worth mentioning.
Mino Raiola
If you are not aware of who Mino Raiola is exactly, he is a very well-known agent, known for being the agent of some of the biggest names in football like Mario Balotelli, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Robinho, Paul Pogba, Marek Hamsik and many others. He has a very big mouth (much like his waistline) and tends to cause a lot of controversy. Mino always tries to get as much money out of a club as possible, making negotiations between club and player drag out longer than necessary. This money-searching gene that he contains is probably the cause for this sudden rumor of Balotelli heading to Chelsea. Raiola was quoted as saying that Mario won't stay at Milan forever and if things don't change soon, his superstar client may want out. Considering it's Mino Raiola, this is most likely and simply a message to Galliani and Berlusconi to give Mario a pay raise, which would then mean more money for himself. This comes to no surprise as Raiola has had similar instances with his other clients, especially with Ibrahimovic. This is what makes Raiola so popular among players though, he gets them more money.
Mario Balotelli
If you follow me on Twitter, you probably(should) know that I am a massive Balotelli fan. I've been watching him since 2010 and became an instant fan of him when I was watching his debut for Italy. The thought of Mario leaving Milan makes me cringe, but even I have to admit that he's not going to stay forever. However, I absolutely do not believe he will be leaving any time soon, especially back to England. His turbulent time at Manchester City and the British media drove Mario out and brought him to the club he supported as a child and loves so much. In my opinion, since his move to AC Milan, I would consider Mario's time fairly successful for the most part. However, he still has to prove himself as an elite player in the world. He is almost the sole reason why Milan is in the Champions League this year at all. If Milan stays in its current state as it is right now, I can only expect Mario to stay for another 2-3 years. He is too great of a player to stay around a mediocre squad for too long. If Milan does turn around and become what it is known for, then I can expect Mario to stay for possibly another 7 or 8 years or even for the rest of his career. What I expect to happen is for Mario to probably stay for about another 5 or so years and at that point, a move could be very likely for him. Despite this, I only see a very select group of teams that he would go to, two of those teams would be Barcelona and Real Madrid. My reason for these two teams is that Mario had a tryout with Barca when he was 15 years old, but didn't make the team due to their interest in someone a little older than he was, Messi. Mario also has a good relationship with Neymar which could lead to some luring from the Brazilian. The possibility of Barca having Balotelli, Messi and Neymar in attack is very real and very intriguing. Real Madrid is another likely destination as Mario was a bit of a Madridista as kid, watching players like Zidane and Ronaldo in the prime of their careers. The third team I can see Mario joining is Bayern, simply because they have so much money and because I see absolutely no chance of him going back to England. This is all just wide speculation and in the end, it's really up to Mario what he wants to do.
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