Mario Balotelli and the Story of His Lightning Start at Nice

Why always him? It may be the ultimate Mario Balotelli cliche, harking back to the famous message he revealed from under his shirt after scoring in the Manchester derby back in 2011, but it was hard not to feel a fair dash of sympathy for him on Sunday afternoon. After scoring a sensational winner for his new club Nice, continuing his current hot streak, the Italian centre-forward was dismissed for two quickly collected bookings, including a harsh second yellow card.

Many who have not looked at the detail of the moment will paint it as the ultimate Balotelli moment—brilliance bookended by self-sabotage—but it wasn’t like that. Having picked up a first yellow for removing his shirt after scoring, the second arrived in stoppage time for what referee Olivier Thual deemed as moving his face into that of Lorient defender Steven Moreira.

It was no such thing. In fact, Balotelli was quite literally turning the other cheek. The surprise on Moreira's face, as much as that on Balotelli’s, told its own story. Laudably, Thual has recognised his mistake, having reviewed the television images and reported as such to the technical director of referees, Pascal Garibian, as reported by L’Equipe (in French).

With UEFA’s recent decision to expunge Marco Verratti’s second yellow card with Paris Saint-Germain against Arsenal in the Champions League as precedent, there is every chance the same will happen for Balotelli and that—crucially—he will be available to play in the much-anticipated visit of Lyon to the Allianz Riviera after the international break.

We’ll find out for sure late on Thursday, after the Ligue de Football Professionnel’s (LFP) disciplinary board has its weekly meeting in Paris. It’s a relatively unprecedented situation, but on current form, Balotelli can turn back all sorts of tides.

The explosion of media interest at the 26-year-old’s arrival on the Cote d’Azur is to be expected; local newspaper Nice Matin reported a collection of over 30 photographers present at his first training session with the club. “We’ve never seen anything like that here,” the newspaper wrote. There has also been a bevy of eager autograph hunters and the simply curious.

What has been altogether more surprising, given his near-disappearance from sporting view in the past two campaigns, is his immediate roar into form. Balotelli has scored a goal every 51 minutes in Ligue 1, more frequently than Alexandre Lacazette of Lyon (once every 52 minutes) or Paris Saint-Germain’s Edinson Cavani (63).

The next best are Mevlut Erding (Metz, 111) and Martin Braithwaite (Toulouse, 112). When one considers that Balotelli didn’t play a single game in pre-season, it’s remarkable.

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If it seems like Balotelli has simply turned up with his washbag and boots, got changed and started to play, don’t be fooled. Nice have managed his comeback meticulously because even if the initial spark for the transfer came from the boardroom, with president Jean-Pierre Rivere openly keen to snare a media coup of a signing, coach Lucien Favre is an absolute stickler for detail.

That eagle eye is what’s put Les Aiglons on top of the table after eight games, still unbeaten after the best start in the club’s history, despite the departures of three key players in Hatem Ben Arfa, Valere Germain and Nampalys Mendy last summer. It’s what has led them to holding Ligue 1’s best defensive record, with just five goals conceded to date.

It is also this nous that promises to relight a fire in Balotelli that seemed to have long since gone out. Favre’s plan for new No. 9 is carefully mapped. The Swiss coach was unaffected by the fuss over Sunday’s red card, and he stuck to the original plan. Having played the full match against Lorient after playing a half (and scoring, before illness forced him off) at Krasnodar in the Europa League on Thursday, Balotelli would be made to have two days off. He was left out of the recent trip to Montpellier altogether to manage his workload.

The faith and buy-in appears to be reciprocal. Even though Favre’s lukewarm reaction to the initial rumours of Balotelli’s arrival in late August were widely interpreted as the coach's refusal to take the striker, the player himself explained his coach as being largely responsible for the move because “he (Favre) really wanted me," as reported here by RTS Sport (in French).

It has always been plain, though, that Balotelli would have no easy ride from Favre, who said in that presentation press conference that the new boy “would have to restart working because it’s been difficult for him for four years.” The message was stark. Ever since that epochal performance for Italy against Germany in the Euro 2012 semi-finals, Balotelli has done nothing that reflects his talent. Even at a self-proclaimed modest family club like Nice, Favre is not interested in sugar-coating the brutal truth.

Another part of that truth is that Nice has changed. As Nice Matin also pointed out, there is a sense of anticipation after last season’s fourth-place finish (and frequently dazzling football) under now-Southampton boss Claude Puel, with season ticket holders now numbering 12,000, an increase of nearly 20 percent on last season.

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Even with Puel gone, there is a feeling that Nice is a great place to rebuild a tarnished reputation, after Ben Arfa did so in spectacular style last season, hitting a career-best 17 league goals and eliciting attention from Barcelona before eventually signing for Paris Saint-Germain.

Ben Arfa was one of the first to praise Rivere for signing Balotelli, with the president acknowledging the path the France winger had beaten. "Hatem, if we were able to get Balotelli, it's also in part thanks to you and the other players," Rivere said in response, as reported here by ESPN FC.

The succession planning has been good on and off the pitch, with Favre the perfect man to continue that collective spirit. If Balotelli was always hopelessly ill-suited to nominally stepping into Luis Suarez’s boots in a Liverpool team that thrived on pressing high and early, he suits this Nice side down to the ground.

Energetic and talented youngsters like Vincent Koziello, Wylan Cyprien and Ricardo Pereira do the running for him—and, as he has reminded us in recent weeks, there are few cleaner hitters of the ball at the sharp end than Balotelli when you cut away all the hoopla.

Favre will keep Balotelli honest, telling the club’s official website after Sunday’s game that his “extra hours in training” were part of a continuous, “long process” as he seeks his best level. The mood at the club, which feels determined to do the city proud after the tragedy of the Bastille Day attacks, demands concentration and earnestness, too.

Like Ben Arfa, Balotelli has only signed for one year. Who knows what’s next? All that is certain is that he’s in the right place for now—and that perhaps Ben Arfa might tell him, if he continues on his current dynamic, that the grass isn’t always greener on the other side.

All stats via WhoScored.com unless otherwise indicated.