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 Italian citizenship. Casiraghi called him to join the Italy national under-21 football team "Azzurrini" on 29 August for the matches against Greece and Croatia. In his debut on 5 September 2008, he scored his first international goal in a 1–1 draw with Greece. Balotelli was named in the final 23-man squad for the 2009 UEFA European Under-21 Championships and scored the opening goal against the hosts Sweden in the 23rd minute. Barely 15 minutes later, he was shown a red card for retaliating against Swedish midfielder Pontus Wernbloom. Italy were eliminated by eventual champions Germany in the semi-finals following a