Mario Balotelli who had booed him for his poor performance. He admitted three years later the incident was the only regret in his life. Disgruntled fans confronted and tried to attack Balotelli after the match. His behaviour on the pitch brought disapproval from his teammates, with Javier Zanetti publicly saying, "Mario needs to focus on doing what he can do on the pitch, he can't allow himself to behave like this." Amid these controversies with his club and manager, many English Premier League teams, including Manchester United and Manchester City, indicated they were interested in signing Balotelli in July 2010. After weeks
Mario Balotelli was interviewed by a newspaper about racism amongst fans in the host countries. During the interview, Balotelli reiterated his threat to walk off the pitch if any of the opposition fans racially abused him in any way, and said that he would "kill" anyone that threw a banana at him. He spoke about his increasing fears that black players would be targeted by racists and that he refused to accept racism in any form, talking of his past experience of racism in football, notably during his time playing in Serie A for Internazionale. During the build-up to the competition, Manchester