CRAZIEST SUPER STARS {mario balotelli vs eric cantona} Mario Balotelli was 18 months oldwhen Eric Cantona tread the turf in English football for the first time on a windswept February afternoon at Oldham’s Boundary Park in 1992. Whether the Manchester City forward has grown up much during the subsequent two decades is a moot point after his latest controversial act, in which he appeared to kick Tottenham midfielder Scott Parker in the head during the 3-2 victory at theEtihad Stadium on Sunday. The similarities between Balotelli and Cantona increase by the week, with the Italian matching the Frenchman for decisive contributions, to both scorelines and headlines. In 1992, Cantona had pitched up at Leeds United after walking out on French club Nîmes in disgust at having been given a one-month suspension for throwing a ball at a referee. The ban was doubled after Cantona called each member of the disciplinary panel an idiot. The Premier League now has another enfant terrible. Balotelli, the dart-throwing, firework-releasing man-child, has become the modern incarnation of Cantona, despite the motorbike-riding Frenchman’s passion for art, acting and Gitanes. For neither cares much for authority or convention. Balotelli, as wild as he can be, is a man of the people who will think nothingof offering a £50 tip to the guy who has just cleaned his car or a grateful Big Issue vendor on Deansgate. Cantona rejected the Millionaires’ Row lifestyle of his United team-mates and chose to live in a modest semi-detached house in the Salford suburb of Boothstown. And, while their brilliance on a football pitch has ensured adulation and iconic status, both men possess a dark side. Balotelli has been sent off three times in his 18 months at City. Thedismissal against Dynamo Kiev last season was for a kung-fu style challenge on an opponent, while his brush with Parker evoked memories of Cantona’s dismissal against Swindon Town in March 1994 for stamping on John Moncur. Four days later, Cantona was dismissed again during a tempestuous 2-2 draw with Arsenal at Highbury, with Sir Alex Ferguson bemoaning the piercingfocus on the player, whose temperament had been describedas the Achilles’ heel of United’s title challenge. Balotelli is facing similar accusations. Gary Neville, Cantona’s former United team-mate, claimed after the Parker incident that “that lad will either win City the title or lose it for them”. To suggest that Balotelli is central to City’s ambitions, as Cantona was to United’s in the mid-1990s, would overstate his importance to Roberto Mancini’s team, but he is an emerging talent. Mancini indulges Balotelli as Ferguson did Cantona. Both managers turn a blind eye to indiscretions in the hope that their faith is rewarded on the pitch. Ferguson allowed Cantona to wear the club suit without a tie and usually with trainers. Mancini merely rolls his eyes and shrugs when told of the latest episode in the Balotelli soap opera. At United, Ferguson’s approach paid off spectacularly, with the Cantona helping to win four Premier League titles in five seasons. Yet the one that got away came in 1995 when an nine-month ban for aiming a flying kick at a fan at Selhurst Parkrobbed United of their talisman and enabled Blackburn to win thetitle. When Cantona threatened to quit halfway through his suspension, Ferguson flew to Paris, where he was carried pillion on a motorbike through the city before a desperate but successfulattempt to talk his troubled genius into reconsidering his plans. Mancini is prepared to go to similar lengths for Balotelli, havingnurtured him as a teenage prodigy at Inter Milan. The City manager has compared the 21 year-old to Cristiano Ronaldo, claiming he can be one of the “top five players in the world”. But Balotelli ought to heed the warning and learn from Cantona’smistakes. When Cantona described the “seagulls following the trawler”, he was referring to the suffocating scrutiny he was under from referees, media and supporters. Balotelli showed with his “Why always me?” T-shirt that he is suffering the same problem. Cantona rose above the distractions and established himself as a Premier League great. Balotelli has the talent to dothe same. The question is whether he has the sense. Why always them? Two foreign stars with attitude to burn
Posted on: Tue, 11 Jun 2013 08:19:19 +0000
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