Wednesday 2 December, 2009
Italy risks losing Mario Balotelli to Ghana as their manager Milovan Rajevac is trying to tempt him into playing for the Black Stars at the World Cup.

Rajevac is desperately looking for a centre-forward to take to South Africa and hopes to exploit the fact Balotelli has never been called up to the full Italy squad.

Balotelli has dual nationality having been born to parents from Ghana before being adopted by an Italian family.

“Tomorrow I leave for South Africa and after the draw I will go directly to Europe. I have a schedule of meetings with my players who are at work in various European Leagues and it's my intention to speak with Balotelli,” Rajevac said.

“I have discussed it with the President and the Vice-President of the Ghanaian FA and they have given me the all clear. The idea is that of going to Bologna to find our captain, Stephen Appiah, and making him accompany me to Milan to meet Mario and Muntari.

“I am happy with the strikers that I have, but Balotelli's qualities are exceptional. He is young. He plays at a big club and he is very very good,” Rajevac concluded.

http://football-italia.net/dec2d.html

dont think hel accept as he will surely break into the Italy squad in the future

Would be nice to see him play for Ghana but just another example of stealing talent.

It depends just how big a cunt he is, he wants to play for Italy but patience isn't one of his strengths. The fac is right now he isn't good enough for Italy, or does he have the right attitude.

That's a bit harsh, if he was never gonna be good enough for Italy you wouldn't have minded, I'm sure. We have the same issue with Dutch born Moroccan players, but it hasn't helped Morocco at all. In the end they just aren't Moroccan, just like Balotelli isn't Ghanian and it's hard for them to adjust to African football

Well you are wrong about me not minding, Balotelli is a grade A cunt and anyone who has watched Italian football over the last couple of years could tell you that, just have a look back at a few threads he is in on this forum. He has fantastic ability but a very poor attitude, and right now isn't good enough for Italy, he doesn't deserve to be called based on his football.

You're probably right about any decision he makes to play for Ghana, he was born in Sicily and raised in Brescia, he might be ethnically Ghanaian but is an Italian and probably doesn't know much about Ghana at all as his parents gave him up for adoption, I'm not sure he even speaks English or their native languages.

I know he's not good enough now and a bit of a prick, but he's still young. He could eventually be good enough to play for Italy, that's what I meant

Yeah I agree, and he will, as long as he doesn't act a dick and just go and play for Ghana because he hasn't been called up for Italy yet at 19 years old and less than 50 games.

According to French reports, Balotelli turned them down, which is great news.

Now if only he could sort out his unbelievably awful attitude and he keeps playing well he may have a chance at making Lippi's World Cup squad.

Notice how he turns them down after the Italian media starts to talk him up for the Italy squad after a couple of good games for Inter?

Haha, yeah... I'd bet that if he hadn't scored that free kick against Rubin and the Italian media hadn't suddenly started calling for his inclusion in the Nazionale he would have played for Ghana. I remember reading a comment of his about a year ago that he wanted to go to the World Cup and he'd join Ghana if Italy didn't call him up.