AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi has branded Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli a ‘rotten apple’ after selling the Italian forward to the Merseyside club.
Balotelli made the switch from Milan, the team he supported as a boy, to Liverpool this summer for £16m and has yet to score a premier league goal, with his only strike coming in the Champions League against Bulgarian minnow Ludogorets.
Berlusconi claims he never wanted to sign Balotelli from Manchester City back in 2013, and that he’s glad his club have managed to offload the controversial 24-year-old.
‘”I remember he was bought against my advice,” Berlusconi told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“We have many champions – (Jeremy) Menez, (Keisuke) Honda, (Stephan) El Shaarawy, (Fernando) Torres, (Nigel) De Jong…
“The base is there. And we no longer have a rotten apple in the dressing room.”
Balotelli found himself dropped to the bench for Liverpool’s premier league game at home to West Bromwich Albion as well as seeing himself left out of the Italian squad for their Euro 2016 qualifiers.