...............An article originally presented by Persey Bediako. I t has been published by CNN-iReport.
I will be supporting Italy in their clash against Spain in the Euro 2012; But it's for a different reason. I have long criticized Balotelli for his history of arrogance and disobedience in the world of soccer. But recently, I felt forgiving of the player's impudence, to say the least. Balotelli started fighting adversity at the young age of 3 when he was given away for adoption by his Ghanaian parents living in Italy. Living with an adopted white mother and family and going to mostly "white italian" school, Balotelli knew he was still far away in his quest to fight adversity, more specifically racism in Italy. Nevertheless, he still triumphed his racial abusers with a sense of victory with his soccer talent, which was evidently clear even at his younger age in school. In addition, he felt the need to add arrogance to his persona with the hope to diffuse the outnumbered white Italians who were constantly discriminating against him. He entered the real world by playing for champions league champs Inter Milan. Unfortunately, these discriminatory chants and racial songs started to resurface again. Juventus fans threw banana at him, called him all sort of names such as Monkey, to mention a few. The "white Italians" refused to accept him as Italian simply because he is black man, more specifically dark skin in complexion unlike his light skin counterparts who were partially accepted. Balotelli even threatened to leave the soccer field at one point in his career when he felt like his arrogance and talent were too little to surpass the majority. Nevertheless, the "little voice" inside him was not ready to give up, so was him. He snubbed my country, Ghana, to play for Italy even in the midst of facing racial profiling in his own country. Italian coach Prandelli was highly criticized for the inclusion of Balotelli simply because of Italians conservative thinking of he being an Italian black man, and also, obviously he being disrespectful indvidual. Balotelli again shut up his critics by scoring two crucial goals against Germany to quality his HOME COUNTRY ITALY to the final stage of the Euro 2012 cup. For The first time, we saw smiles on the face of Balotelli, not because he scored the goals in my opinion. But because he thought his goals could help solve racism in this home country temporary, if not for a long term. This was evidently clear when he hugged his adoptive white mother and dedicated the goals to her after the game. After all, Balotelli already claimed that there is no point to celebrate after a goal since scoring is his job. Drogba did it with Chelsea by winning a champions league, Samuel Eto did it with Inter Milan by winning a champions league. But it is safe to say that these players are not nearly as talented or most important, polarizing as the Italian youngster, Balotelli. Besides, these players already had an identity as Africans playing for a "white club". Balotelli on the other hand is still fighting to overcome his internal conflicts of being an Italian of Ghana descent. Winning this Euro 2012 finals undoubtedly help solve some of the demons haunting him and hopefully, hopefully, hopefully, that could help enlighten many Italians still holding onto the primitive view of racism. That could subsequently help bridged racism issues in Europe as well and the world as a whole. LEGGO SUPER MARIO, LEGGO ITALY.
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