Mario Balotelli Finally Gives Excuse For His Infamous Back-Heel Shot Against LA Galaxy

One of Mario Balotelli's most infamous moments in his footballing career came back at Manchester City.

The 28-year-old Italian striker was playing against LA Galaxy in a pre-season friendly in 2011, finding himself in the perfect opportunity to double City's lead in the match.

However, the former Inter Milan and Liverpool player tried to pull off a showboating backheel trick shot, which didn't even hit the target.

Of course, that led to the brilliant moment where then-City manager Roberto Mancini subbed him off for blowing the chance to score for his side.

Well, the Italy international decided to reveal why he did his backheel shot.

"I thought I was offside! Ba*****s," he wrote in response to 433 posting the video on Instagram.

"And plus, listen to the whistle before I could even shot! [sic] That's why I did it."

It's another classic response from Super Mario, right?

The striker might have cleared the air on that, but his teammates were not happy about it at the time.

"Everybody's seen it, it wasn't a great action and the coach took a decision to take him off," ex-City player Nigel de Jong said (via the Daily Mail).

"That's a decision that's been made and that's a statement that the group is behind him.

"If you are near the target, you should make an attempt to score. Everybody knows that, and Balotelli too. I hope he learns from this moment and that we as a group to emerge stronger."

Liverpool player James Milner, who came on for Balotelli in the match, also questioned his decision to try a backheel shot.

"Obviously, I would like him to put that into the back of the net, but Mario is Mario, he does some strange things sometimes," he told Sky Sports.

"I think he's shown since he's been here he has obviously got great potential, but he's still young and still learning and, hopefully, he will get better and maybe learn from these sort of experiences."

Why always me, right, Balotelli?

What did you make of Balotelli's response?

Let us know in the comments.

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Topics: Manchester City, Football News, Football, Mario Balotelli

Adnan Riaz

Adnan Riaz is a journalist for SPORTbible. He studied for a B.A. in History at the University of York and followed it up with an M.A. in Multimedia Journalism at MMU. Before he started writing about sports, he spent over four years in the gaming press. He has worked for several publications, including Hardcore Gamer, LADbible and the Manchester Evening News. Follow him on Twitter to find out what he is working on next. Got a story tip for Adnan? Email him: [email protected]

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