Balotelli almost chokes after confusing tomato ketchup with red-hot chili sauce, returning to maintain stream football headlines.

Mario Balotelli returned to the spot light last week for an unusual celebration after scoring for Adana Demirapor. Balotelli picked up a lighter thrown at him and pretended to smoke a cigarette.

His brought him back from the mainstream wilderness and added to his catalogue of unusual celebrations. including his famous “why always me”.

Balotelli almost chokes after bizarre confusion

The head strong Italian had some moments of brilliance during the hay days of his career and albeit, many troubling moments to go with.

One of these moments is discussed by former teammate at Marseille Thauvin. The French man revealed an incident Balotelli was involved in after he signed for the club.

“We were on a pre-match training camp, and having a meal. At that time Adil Rami was at the club, and he always asked for there to be harissa on the table.”

“So the chef always used to put out a bowl of harissa for Adil. Balotelli showed up. It was his first pre-match camp with the club, and everything was new for him.”

“As the good Italian he is, he helped himself to pasta. He thought the harissa was tomato sauce and began plastering the harissa over his pasta – he took a big helping of it.”

“Us other players looked at one another, and thought: ‘That’s hot stuff – and he’s taken a lot of it.’

“We thought he knew what he was doing. We didn’t know him, so we felt he knew and that there was no problem.

“Mario began to eat, but inside five minutes he was weeping and the sweat was pouring down his face.

“All the players wished him welcome to the club. We were crying with laughter – it was exceptional.”

How Balotelli’s career fizzled out 

Not many people know that Balotelli still plays professional football. The Italian is no longer in the public thinking except he does something that catches the eye.

Balotelli played in the Inter Milan squad that won the champion’s league under Mourinho in 2010.

All the coaches he played for at club and international level admitted that he bordered on being a world class player. That’s why he kept on getting chances, even though he always ended up blowing every single one.

Balotelli knew that he had all the tools to become an excellent footballer.

“I do think I’m in the top 10 in the world. Cristiano Ronaldo and Leo Messi are on a different level to everyone else, but I could be in there with Neymar, Antoine Griezmann and Paulo Dybala. They are only ahead because they’ve won more. Dybala has been in two Champions League finals and I haven’t.

There is a reason he didn’t reach the heights that he could have attained: Lack of professionalism.

As his career frittered away, he mentioned that his spell at the very top was him playing at 20% of his capabilities