KIEV, Ukraine -- The sweetest moment of Euro 2012 didn't fit the
script. In the celebration after Italy's 2-1 semifinal win over favored
Germany on Thursday, Azzurri striker Mario Balotelli made a pilgrimage
to the stands of the National Stadium in Warsaw and embraced a small,
aging Italian woman in the front row. So fearsome on the field, so ready
to project anger and strength, the 21-year-old Balotelli melted in her arms like a gentle giant.
It
was the kind of warmth you see between a mother and son. Silvia
Balotelli, Mario's adoptive mother, had come to Warsaw to support him,
and he had done something transcendent, scoring both Italian goals in a
breathtaking display of power, speed and skill. But for the polarizing
wunderkind of Italian soccer, the one who's on the verge of holding the
English Premier League and European titles, the importance of those
goals paled in comparison to the emotion he felt afterward.
"The best moment of the night was when I saw my mother after the game," Balotelli would say. "Those goals were for her."
To
say that Balotelli is larger than life would be accurate these days,
even in a literal sense, thanks to the gigantic piece of crop art
showing the back of his Mohawked head in a field near Verona. Balotelli
has become a symbol in the world of European soccer, one that has
produced its share of ugly moments from others during Euro 2012.
It
may be hard to fathom for U.S. sports fans, but racism is still common
in stadiums here, and Balotelli has been the lightning rod for much of
it. The Croatian federation was fined $101,000 in part for racist chants
by its fans that included a banana thrown at Balotelli. On Friday, the
Spanish federation was fined $25,000 for its own racist fan chants at
the towering Italian. A Ukrainian TV commentator suggested that racist
taunts might be useful in throwing Balotelli off his game, as though it
were just one more tactic on the field. And then Italy's sports bible
Gazzetta dello Sport
got into the act before the Italy-England game, publishing a cartoon in
which Balotelli was shown swatting soccer balls from the top of Big Ben
like King Kong atop the Empire State Building. (The paper later
apologized.)
Born to Ghanaian immigrants in Sicily and
adopted by a white Italian family, Balotelli has chosen (perhaps not
surprisingly) to flash scowls, angry poses and provocative T-shirts (WHY
ALWAYS ME?) whenever he scores, whether it's for England's Manchester
City or the Italian national team. In England, he has earned a
reputation as a prodigiously talented but reckless player who's always
in danger of earning a red card, as he did in a late-season Premier
League game at Arsenal, drawing a three-game suspension. More than a few
observers thought it was foolhardy for Italian coach Cesare Prandelli
to choose Balotelli for his Euro 2012 team.
Instead,
Balotelli has flipped the script. There has been plenty of poor behavior
by players in this tournament -- French midfielder Samir Nasri's
profane tirades at journalists, tales of ego-driven meltdowns inside the
Dutch camp -- but Balotelli hasn't produced any of it. Refusing to
complain publicly when he lost his place in the starting lineup,
Balotelli did his job and scored three terrific goals to tie for the
tournament lead. (Not coincidentally, he's starting again.) Rather than
clash with his teammates, as is so common in these high-pressure
tournaments, he has developed a respectful working relationship with
frontline partner Antonio Cassano and Italian playmaker Andrea Pirlo.
Instead of spewing profanities at the media a la Nasri, Balotelli
requested to appear at a podium press conference and came off as mature
and even funny, saying he's both a man and Peter Pan.
Balotelli's
Italian teammates appear to have genuine affection for him, and in
perhaps the biggest stunner of Thursday's win, they managed to draw a
smile out of him after his goals.
The closest comparison in
U.S. sports that you could probably make to Balotelli would be Dennis
Rodman and Terrell Owens in the prime of their careers. Like them,
Balotelli has the ability to take over games with his surpassing talent
and cleverness. Like them, Balotelli has the tendency to take things too
far at times, provoking opponents and becoming his own worst enemy. And
like them, Balotelli has acquired a kind of folk-hero status, spawning
outlandish tales that resonate because, well, it's Super Mario, and even
the ones that aren't totally true carry a kernel of truth.
Did
you hear the one about how Balotelli set his Manchester house on fire
by lighting a bunch of fireworks indoors? Or the one when he tried a
full pirouette on a breakaway against the L.A. Galaxy in a friendly --
and missed? Or the one when he had a traffic accident, got stopped by
the cops and responded to their question of why he was carrying 5,000
pounds with: "Because I am rich"? Or the one when he drove around
Manchester wearing a Father Christmas outfit and giving out cash to the
poor? (The first two are definitely true; the second two perhaps not so
much.)
Balotelli has won plenty of fans (and a fair number
of critics) during his club career at Inter and Manchester City. But a
funny thing happens when a player puts on his country's jersey and
scores big goals at a major tournament. You become not just a player but
a national hero. It's as though Balotelli, already larger than life,
has somehow increased his stature here.
He brought it to a
new level in Thursday's game, and then he added a new layer after that.
In a tournament that needed a message of racial healing, the photograph
of an exultant black player hugging his beaming white mother is a
powerful image that needs no explanation.
The sweetest moment of Euro 2012 came from, of all people, Mario Balotelli. Imagine that.
