Did you go away for a while? In that case you might have missed the antics of
Mario Balotelli, an Italian footballer. In the news we hear that his contract
at Brescia was recently terminated after having been absent from training.
However, this not the first time the striker with 36 caps and 14 goals for
Italy has made the news.
His first successful manager, Roberto Mancini, is said to have given up on him:
After following Mancini from Inter to City they eventually fell out after a
"training ground bust up" between in January 2013. After being dismissed from a
game against Arsenal in 2012 Mancini had said: “I've finished my words for him.
I've finished. I love him as a guy, as a player. I know him. He's not a bad guy
and [he] is a fantastic player. But, at this moment, I'm very sorry for him
because he continues to lose his talent, his quality.“
The legendary manager Mourinho had a similar experience while at Inter in 2012:
“I had all my strikers injured... I was really in trouble and Mario was the
only one. Mario got a yellow card in the 42nd minute, so when I got to the
dressing room at half-time I spend about 14 minutes of the 15 available
speaking only to Mario. I said to him: 'Mario, I cannot change you, I have no
strikers on the bench, so don't touch anybody and play only with the ball. If
we lose the ball no reaction. If someone provokes you, no reaction, if the
referee makes a mistake, no reaction.' The 46th minute – red card!”
Balotelli is so iconic that while at City the fans made a song that referenced
his eccentricities, which included a Sinatra style photo-op with two noted
Mafia mobsters.
Nevertheless the most notorious of his media appearances concerned his ex
girlfriend, Rafaella Fico, who in July 2012 announced that she was pregnant
with his child. Balotelli denied it could be possible, and threatened legal
action to defend his reputation against what he insisted were false
accusations. Then, unfortunately for Balotelli, a positive DNA test confirmed
Fico’s claim. In February 2014 Balotelli gave in and acknowledged paternity.
Anyway. Even a tarnished reputation can hardly defeat the aura of being
considered the second best dressed man in the world, only behind musician Tinie
Tempah in style, according to GQ Magazine...
What do you know?
Stay in touch!
-tor
Sendt fra min iPhone
9. jun. 2020 kl. 03:38 skrev david ritchie <profdritchie@xxxxxxxxx>:
Did you read about someone spotting what they think is a Nile crocodile in a
river in northern Spain? And the guy getting his leg bitten off by a shark.
Hunker down, people, hunker down.
Apparently that’s a Scottish word. https://www.etymonline.com/word/hunker I ;
like the stuff about the noun. Especially the early meaning of “hunks.” Now
there’s a word that’s drifted.
I’m currently wondering whether hunkering is the opposite of “standing with.”
Ever since my knees were trimmed, I’ve not been about to squat, so you won’t
find me hunkering under any circumstance.
Or sleeping through the night. Someone I talked with today said she’s
noticed how well she’s been sleeping since being locked down. Less to worry
about. Seems theoretically possible, but not what they now call, “lived
experience.” I suppose the opposite is vicarious experience.
Told L. as we began watching another episode of “La Femme Nikita” where the
plot was going. Was right. So she asked when we started the second one,
“And this?” Right again. She said I should be writing that kind of thing.
I said it’s a lot easier to understand others’ plotting problems than to
solve your own.
I’ve got to the point in my reading on the Yom Kippur war where the Israelis
learn the cost of promoting someone to a position beyond his abilities. At
least similar people in my life generally don’t get people killed.
I looked at my calendar just now. I do not have a single appointment before
July. That will change, but what a lovely prospect. I reached the end of a
first draft of act two last week. Maybe they shouldn’t call places where
writers go to enjoy the tranquility in which to create, “retreats”; they
should be called hunkers. Everyone gets a cabin in the woods in which to
squat.
Or not.
Do carry on.
David Ritchie,
Portland, Oregon
