Since the English league changed his name to the Premier League in 1992, there have been over 75 Italian football stars that have played in the league. Despite such a high number of Italian players that have played in the Premier League, only Mario Balotelli has won a Premier League title as an Italian.
Recall that Mario Balotelli who started his professional football career in an Italian side Lumezzane on April 1, 2006, joined a Premier League side Manchester City on August 12, 2010, from Inter Milan for a transfer fee worth €29.50 million.
Then, the 31-year-old striker was the most promising footballer in the world due to his ability to score and his skillfulness.
During the 2010-2011 season, Mario Balotelli helped Manchester City to win the Premier League title. The win made him the first Italian to ever win the prestigious title.
Italian goalkeeper, Carlo Cudicini could have been the first Italian to win the Premier League title. He would have won the title with Chelsea during the 2004-2005 and 2004-2006 seasons but then, he was second fiddle to the club’s first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech.
Though he was part of the Chelsea squad that won the Premier League title back to back, Carlo Cudicini was not given a Premier League medal.
Why Carlo Cudicini was not given the Premier League medal
As mentioned earlier, Carlo Cudicini was part of the Chelsea squad that won the Premier League title in 2005 and 2006 but is not regarded as a Premier League winner.
The 48-year-old Italian footballer who is currently serving as a loan player technical coach at Chelsea was not given the Premier League medal because he did play up to 10 or five times in the league during those two seasons Chelsea won the title.
Note that a player can only be given a Premier League medal if he makes at least five Premier League appearances with the league-winning team. Before now, players can only be given the Premier League winners medal if they make at least 10 appearances but that was reduced to five league appearances.
Mario Balotelli and his Premier League stats
Mario Balotelli who now plays for Turkish side Adana Demirspor, played 80 games in all competitions for Manchester City in which he scored 30 goals and provided 7 assists in 80 games.
In the Premier League, before he left Manchester City for AC Milan on January 31, 2013, for a transfer fee worth €20 million, Balotelli made 70 appearances in which he scored 21 goals and provided 3 assists.
Mario Balotelli would have been the longest-serving Italian player in the Premier League instead of Carlo Cudicini if not because of his temperament and his indiscipline.
Recall that after Balotelli spent just a season at AC Milan, he returned to the Premier League on August 25, 2014, to play for Liverpool. His temperament prevented him from playing regularly and had to leave the league permanently on August 31, 2016.
Meanwhile, it is not clear who Balotelli is currently dating but reports claimed that he was in a relationship with one Fanny Neguesha. The Italian footballer has two children, Pia born on 5 December 2012, and Lion born on 28 September 2017 from different women.
Balotelli has made 36 appearances for Italy’s national team. Since he made his debut for the country on August 10, 2010, he has scored 14 goals. He was recently invited back to the national team after years of staying out of the team.
