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Former Man City Kitman Reveals The Hilariously Brilliant Thing He Found In Balotelli's Locker

Former Man City Kitman Reveals The Hilariously Brilliant Thing He Found In Balotelli's Locker

Classic Mario...

Josh Lawless

Josh Lawless

Former Manchester City kitman Les Chapman has shared a hilarious anecdote of what he found in Mario Balotelli's locker at the club when he left.

Chapman, who is 20th on the all-time Football League appearances and played for the likes of Huddersfield and Oldham in his career, spent 17 years at City as the club's kitman.

'Chappy' was incredibly popular with the players and could regularly be seen in funny videos on the club's website - one of which included Balotelli.

The crazy Italian striker signed for City in 2010 and formed a friendship with Chapman, who he greeted warmly when the 69-year old, now working in City's media department, travelled over to Nice to interview him.

Image: PA

And in a brilliant interview with the Daily Mail, where he calls Balo "the most unpredictable man on the planet", he revealed that he found parking tickets galore in his locker when he left for AC Milan.

"He [Balotelli] was a complete one-off," he said.

"The most unpredictable man on the planet. When he got sent off at Arsenal he threw his boot through the plasma TV in the dressing-room!

"But he was bright. He wasn't stupid, and he was very generous. He would go into a garage and pay for everyone's petrol or give a homeless guy a wad of cash.

"Then he used to wonder why his car was impounded 27 times... because it was painted in camouflage and he parked it on double yellows outside San Carlo restaurant in the middle of Manchester every day. I opened his locker after he left and all his parking tickets just fell out!"

Image: PA

In the same interview, Chapman detailed how Roberto Mancini fell out with the bulk of his first-team squad and also revealed that Peter Schmeichel couldn't be more fussy when it came to his kits and accessories.

The Dane, who is synonymous with Manchester United but had a brief spell across the city, went through a staggering 92 kits in one season, as per Chapman.

"He was fussy," Chapman explains. "He was a great lad during the week but on matchday he was a monster.

"He'd arrive at the ground and give me his gloves and I had to hide them where no-one could see them or touch them. I then had to produce them at the right time, just before he went out. He also had to have a different kit for the warm-up, first half and second half - we went through 92 in one season!"

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Topics: Manchester City, Mario Balotelli