Why always him? Balotelli tops our poll for football’s top diva
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Don’t tell Mario Balotelli because he might throw a tantrum, but the Liverpool striker has been voted football’s biggest diva.
The 24-year-old picked up 43 per cent of the vote to put him well clear of Carlos Tevez in second.
Throughout his career Balotelli has stirred up a certain amount of controversy, from setting off a firework in his bathroom, to breaking into a women’s prison, but it was his numerous bust-ups that have seen him crowned the biggest diva of the lot.
The Italian international was a clear winner of our poll after falling out with Roberto Mancini and Jose Mourinho in his career to date.
The latter accused him of showing a lack of effort in training when at Inter Milan, while the former instantly substituted him when attempting an unnecessary back-heel shot against LA Galaxy as well as being involved in a training ground bust up with the forward.
Next up in our standings was Carlos Tevez, the former-Juventus hit-man receiving 22 per cent of the vote.
His unwillingness to warm up when relegated to the bench during his time at Manchester City for a Champions League match against Bayern Munich resulted in a fallout with the aforementioned Mancini and Carlos Tevez ”going on strike”.
Rounding out the top three were France’s 2010 World Cup squad for their petulant displays at the expense of then-coach Raymond Domenech.
Maybe indicating a young turn-out of our voters, but two 1990s figures of footballing folklore feature in the bottom three.
Paolo Di Canio’s shove on referee Paul Alcock obviously wasn’t seen as diva-ish by our readers as he picked up just 10 per cent of the vote.
That though, was far more than both Nottingham Forest’s forward Pierre van Hooijdonk and QPR car-park camper Peter Odemwingie, the pair picking up just three and five per cent respectively.
All Odds and Markets are correct as of the date of publishing.
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