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| - Fact Check: Did Balotelli make a snide remark about Messi?
An Instagram post citing a critical remark from Italian football star Mario Balotelli has gone viral on social media.
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India Today Fact Check
Balotelli never said this.
Who is the greatest footballer of our times, Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo? While this debate rages on, an Instagram post citing a critical remark from Italian football star Mario Balotelli has gone viral on social media.
On December 8, 2019, an Instagram user posted a claim that said Italian forward Mario Balotelli wants to win the Ballon d'Or (world footballer of the year award) with different clubs rather than win it several times only for one club. Balotelli, who currently plays for Serie A (top Italian football league) club Brescia, has never won the Ballon d'Or.
The Instagram post shared a screenshot showing Balotelli's photo and a quote that said: "Mario Balotelli after 2019 Ballon d'Or award, 'I would rather win 2 Ballon d'Ors with 2 different clubs like Cristiano Ronaldo than win 5 or 6 Golden Balls with one club. What's the point of spending a whole career in one club and saying I'm the best really it's shameful?"
The name "Footballworlds" is superimposed on the screenshot.
Barcelona star Messi is often criticised for having played and won trophies for just one club. He has won the Ballon d'Or six times, each time as a Barcelona player. Juventus's Ronaldo, meanwhile, has won the prize five times, but for multiple clubs.
So, according to the post, Balotelli's alleged remark is a dig at Messi.
The Instagram post was liked by more than 7,000 people. A similar claim was posted on several other social media platforms.
The archive post can be seen here.
India Today Anti Fake News War Room (AFWA) has found the post to be untrue. We also found that many social media users have commented on the post as "fake quote".
We ran a keyword search on whether Balotelli has ever made this remark. We looked up his official Twitter account and didn't find anything that substantiates the post's claim. His Twitter handle carries the warning: "Don't believe anything you read about me unless it is coming from here."
We checked his official Instagram handle as well and didn't find any comment related to this claim.
After a keyword search, we found a news report in which Balotelli spoke about Messi, Ronaldo and the Ballon d'Or. An article published on Daily Mail on May 27, 2017 said, "Mario Balotelli jokingly reveals plan to beat Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo to the Ballon d'Or: 'I will have to kill those two to win it'."
The article clearly doesn't quote the Italy striker as comparing himself to Messi and Ronaldo.
In fact, in another article published on May 3, 2019 on football news website soccerladuma.co.za, Balotelli compared Messi with Ronaldo, categorically saying that the Barcelona player is better than his rival. This remark is the opposite of what is claimed in the Instagram post.
In the article, Balotelli was quoted as saying, "In terms of quality, Messi is better than everyone. I'm convinced that if you ask a defender if they would rather play against Messi or Ronaldo, they would have no doubts."
In a few other articles published by several mainstream sports news websites, like Footballoitalia.net, Balotelli maintained the same stance, arguing that Ronaldo cannot be compared with Messi.
After checking multiple sources, it can be said that Balotelli never made the comment as claimed in the Instagram post and it was falsely attributed to him.
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