Balotelli quizzed over Mafia links
September 8, 2011


By ESPN staff

Mario Balotelli's turbulent Manchester City career has taken another unsteady turn with the striker ordered by Italian police to explain his links to the country's Mafia.

Balotelli, who has courted controversy since making a £24 million switch from Inter Milan last summer, has been called as a witness by prosecutors in Naples for an anti-Mafia investigation that is going to trial next week.

The forward was given a guided tour of a notorious crime-ridden district of Naples by Mario Iorio, a catering entrepreneur who has been charged with money laundering as part of an ongoing crime investigation. Balotelli will face stiff questioning on his links to Iorio and regarding his visit to the Scampia area when he appears before prosecutors on September 15.

"There is nothing to worry about. I am calm. I had no idea who the people were showing me around Scampia," Balotelli said when asked about the court visit.

"That day there were loads of people around me. I'm sad the effect this may have on my family. I just wanted to see what the area was like as I had seen it in the film Gomorrah."

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/news/story/_/id/953949/man-city%27s-mario-balotelli-quizzed-over-links-to-the-mafia?cc=5901

He said, "I just wanted to see what the area was like as I had seen it in the film Gomorrah"!!! You couldn't make this stuff up.