The Cult of Calcio
·28 octobre 2024
The Cult of Calcio
·28 octobre 2024
After a back-and-forth between the various decision-makers at Genoa, Mario Balotelli is indeed joining them. Alberto Gilardino has been pushing for it for a while, but not everybody within the brass was convinced. New injuries up front tip the scale, Mediaset informs.
The 34-year-old strike has inked a contract until June 2025 and will earn €400k gross plus bonuses tied to his appearances. The club will reportedly have a clause to rescind his deal until December 31st if they weren’t satisfied.
Balotelli will help Genoa make up for the absences of Vitinha, Junior Messias, and Caleb Ekuban. He tallied 7 goals in 16 appearances with Adana Demirspor last season. He last played in Serie A at Brescia 2019/2020, while he spent half of the ensuing season with Monza in Serie B. The marksman had two separate spells with the Turkish team and also starred for Sion in recent years.
Gilardino addressed the newcomer after the loss against Lazio (via Tuttomercatoweb).
“His career speaks for him, but he can’t solve all the problems on his own. He’ll add personality and could provide a spark in certain moments. We’ll have to bring him to the technical and physical conditions for him to perform at his best.”
Their situation is so dire, both economically and injury-wise, that any healthy body helps, especially for cheap. He was still viable in recent seasons, but that will have to be confirmed against better competition. Hopefully for them, he won’t be the same lighting rod as usual, as they have enough on their plate already.