Mario Balotelli joined Genoa in October 2024 in search of a more permanent home after moving around six different teams in as many years. Since his three-year tenure with OGC Nice from 2016 to 2019, the Italian has not been able to stay with a team for more than one season. However, earlier this season, manager Alberto Gilardino signed him after deciding to take a chance on him.
However, the manager was fired a few weeks later, and Patrick Vieira, a legend of Arsenal, took his position. Although the former footballer is regarded as one of the greatest in Premier League history, his managerial career has produced wildly disparate degrees of success. Like Balotelli, he has spent too much time in recent years trying to find a place to call home.
Since joining the coaching profession in 2016, he has managed New York City FC, Nice, Crystal Palace, Strasbourg, and currently Genoa. However, he has never held a position for more than two years. The two are currently together in Italy, where they had the ideal chance to succeed as a couple. However, that hasn’t been the case, and since Vieira arrived, Balotelli’s fortunes at Genoa have deteriorated.
Balotelli has been frozen out of the Genoa squad by Vieira.
The forward has only made six appearances.
Balotelli joined Genoa on October 28, 2024, and Vieira was named the club’s new manager less than a month later on November 20. Their relationship hasn’t started off as well as it could have. The manager has overseen 19 games so far, winning seven, drawing seven, and losing five, making it a strong start to his Serie A career. Regretfully, Balotelli has been largely absent from that run.
The former Manchester City player made his club debut on November 4 and returned to action three days later, however that was Gilardino’s final game. Vieira’s first five games as Genoa’s manager saw him used as a substitute four times, but that was about as good as he got. Since then, the Italian has not appeared at all. In every other game, he has been completely excluded from the matchday roster, but he has been named on the bench three times.
With a cryptic social media post, Balotelli attacked Vieira, expressing his dissatisfaction with his circumstances at Genoa.
Between 2007 and 2010, the pair really played together at Inter Milan and have a history. That hasn’t helped Balotelli’s chances in Genoa, and only a few months into Vieira’s managerial tenure, he has been shut out of the team entirely. He has also expressed his displeasure with the circumstances in a mysterious social media post. Balotelli has expressed his displeasure on Instagram after not playing a single minute of football in 2025.
Football Italia shared statements from the 34-year-old, who shared a video of himself on his Instagram in what looked to be the Genoa locker room:
“Someone around here would deserve to see not a mature Mario, but the rebellious 16-year-old Mario, maybe then they’d understand what it really means to disrespect someone like this.”
Although it hasn’t been confirmed, it seems likely that Vieira was the target of the remarks considering the situation. He doesn’t seem to have much of a future at Genoa under Vieira, but it’s difficult to think that his actions will improve his chances of returning to the first team.
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