Roberto Mancini’s mother Marianna Puolo is not happy with the son’s decision not to include Mario Balotelli in his squad for the nation’s World Cup play-off clash with North Macedonia.
Italy suffered a 1-0 defeat in Palermo on Thursday, indicating that Italy will miss out on their second successive World Cup.
Italy head coach Mancini, featured Ciro Immobile as the only man up front, before bringing in Joao Pedro, but his side could not make a breakthrough despite having 32 shots on goal. Puolo thinks things could have been different if Balotelli had been picked.
‘I would have called up Balotelli, because he has incredible physical strength and in front of the goal nobody can stop him,’ she told Radiouno, as quoted by Football Italia.
Balotelli has so far netted 12 goals for Turkish side Adana Demirspor, but was not considered for selection by Mancini, and has not played for his country since September 2018.
