Aguero misses Balotelli at City

Sergio Aguero has revealed in his new autobiography that he loved his time alongside Mario Balotelli at Manchester City – and feels his fellow striker was “crazy” because of his insecurity.

The pair played alongside each other at the Etihad Stadium for a year and a half before Balotelli was sold to AC Milan in January 2013. They famously combined to provide the winning goal as City defeated Queens Park Rangers in May 2012 to secure the Premier League title.

Balotelli is currently facing criticism at Liverpool for having swapped shirts with Pepe when his side were trailing 3-0 to Real Madrid at half-time of Wednesday’s Champions League clash, but that was far from the first controversy of his career.

Sergio Aguero and Mario Balotelli played together for a year and a half at Manchester City © Getty Images

In extracts from Aguero’s forthcoming autobiography, Born To Rise: My Story, published in the Daily Mirror, he said: “I still miss Mario Balotelli being at City. Even though he used to drive us all nuts.

“We all knew Mario was a little crazy. The thing was, Mario was crazy when he wanted to be. He’d do daft things whenever he felt like it because he thought he could.

“We’d go out on the training pitch and he’d kick the balls away in different directions just to be silly, or he’d throw cheese over people when he was sat in the dining room.

“I couldn’t help but wind him up, calling him silly names and toying with him. But he knew it was because I loved Mario – everyone loved him. A lot of his behaviour, I feel, came from a feeling he had that he was somehow different and maybe a little insecure.

“He used to say that nobody loved him and I’m sure he believed that was true, though it was anything but.”

Balotelli memorably unveiled a t-shirt that read ‘Why Always Me?’ during a 6-1 Manchester derby victory in the 2011-12 campaign and Aguero said: “Nobody knew he had that t-shirt on when we played United at Old Trafford – he must have hidden it beneath a vest. If we’d known we’d have told him to take it off.

“But later when I looked at the ‘Why Always Me?’ message on the front, I told him that if he was calmer and didn’t do so many things, it probably wouldn’t always be him.

“We were having breakfast at Carrington one day. Mario who was reading the paper and it had a big picture of him in that t-shirt. Along each side it had numerous reasons why it was always him – girls, smoking, police, red cards, parking fines, fireworks – it was endless.

Mario Balotelli famously unveiled this shirt during the Manchester derby © AFP

“He’d say, ‘Nah, I never did that,’ and I would say, ‘But there’s a picture proving you did!’ But then he’d say things like, ‘The police have just followed me all the way to the training ground and want to talk to me,’ and I’d say, ‘No wonder! You’ve probably just broke the speed limit or bumped into somebody!’

“Sometimes he’d get a message from reception saying the police wanted to speak to him and he’d say ‘F*** the police!’ Then he’d remember that he’d driven past the police pretty quickly. He was always seeking attention.

“But that was Mario.”

Aguero also spoke about Balotelli’s relationship with former City manager Roberto Mancini.

Mancini had repeatedly urged his compatriot to realise his full potential before eventually sanctioning his sale to Milan in January 2013, shortly after appearing to fight with the striker on the training ground.

“He and Mancini would fight like cat and dog during training, swearing and shouting at each other – but later they’d be like father and son,” Aguero said. “In training we’d have five-a-sides and Mancini would join in and make sure he was on the opposite side to Mario so they could wind each other up.

“They’d kick lumps out of each other, shouting abuse, until the final whistle when Mancini would say, ‘Right, I’m your manager again, now!’ It was comical. Mario would go away and sulk for a couple of days and he was just like a little kid.”

Meanwhile, Aguero revealed that he had idolised former Liverpool striker Michael Owen as a youngster.

“City fans might not want to hear it. But when I was a kid I wanted to be Michael Owen,” he said. “I’ve always liked Liverpool. I’d play a lot of video games and I’d be them, because they played in red, like Independiente, my first club, Arsenal or Chelsea.

“When I saw Owen score that goal for England against Argentina in 1998 I thought: ‘You little s***!’ Even aged 10, I knew they couldn’t allow him that much space. He was a terrific player at that time.”

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