Spectacular and crazy Italian striker Mario Balotelli had the best moment of his professional career last night — slotting home two goals in Italy's upset win over Germany in the Euro 2012 semifinals.
The 21-year-old developed a reputation as a strange, unstable character in the last two years by doing things like: getting in a mock sword fight at an Indian restaurant while violating curfew, stomping on an opponent's head, burning down his bathroom with fireworks, going to a little boy's middle school to yell at bullies, giving a homeless man $1,000 in cash outside a casino, getting pulled over with $25,000 sitting in the front seat, throwing darts at youth players, racking up $10,000 in parking tickets, and wearing a shirt that said "Why Always Me?" under his jersey.
But he's also insanely talented. And after yesterday's all-time great performance, the world has fallen head-over-heels for Super Mario.
A bus in Italy adopted his perplexing catch phrase:
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Someone outside Verona turned him into a crop circle (via @Matthew_Barker):
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Here he is hugging his adoptive mom after the win. In the postgame press conference, he said he told his mom, "These goals are for you."
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Another Balotelli bus in Italy:
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Here's what he said of his goal celebration, "My goal celebration? Yes, some people are upset because they saw my physique and they are just jealous!"
He is pretty ripped:
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The cover of Gazzetta dello Sport, which ran a racist cartoon depicting Balotelli as a monkey earlier in the week, this morning:
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