Rome (AFP) – Mario Balotelli’s agent Mino Raiola has blasted Jurgen Klopp’s treatment of the former Liverpool striker, after the Italy international signed for Nice this week.
Balotelli, 26, signed a one-year deal at the Allianz Riviera on Wednesday after being allowed to leave Liverpool on a free transfer.
The forward struggled on loan at former club AC Milan last season having made little impact at Liverpool in the previous campaign, but Raiola was critical of the way Klopp handled Balotelli’s departure.
“For me, he didn’t take into account that he was talking to a human being,” Raiola said, in quotes published Saturday on the Gazzetta dello Sport website.
“Mario has been exemplary, he never complained about training alone. To say that it was wrong of Klopp would be an understatement, he was a piece of shit about it.”
The outspoken Raiola, who is also the agent of Manchester United midfielder Paul Pogba, supported Balotelli’s earlier assertion that Nice had not taken a risk in signing the striker.
“It’s a gamble that’d I’d try for sure,” he said, predicting that Balotelli would score 20 goals in Ligue 1 this season should he remain fit.
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