Mario Balotelli could be on his way back to Italy's Serie A with Palermo interested in acquiring the striker's services.
Following spells at Inter Milan, Manchester City and AC Milan, Balotelli found himself at Anfield under Brendan Rodgers. Following Rodgers' dismissal, Balotelli found himself out of favour under Jurgen Klopp and with no sign of a turn-around from the German manager, Balotelli's agents have been trying to find a club for their player.
FC Sion in Switzerland and Nice in France have been mentioned as possible destinations for the player but Italian side Palermo have alerted Liverpool to their interest in the player.
Palermo's sporting director, Guglielmo Micciche, spoke quite candidly of the possibility of signing the Italian striker.
“It’s a very difficult operation, but we’re trying. It would be a great coup for president Maurizio Zamparini, a gift for all of the fans," he said.
“We’ve made an offer and now the ball is in Liverpool and the player’s court. He has a high salary and a lot of sponsors, so it’s not easy, but Palermo could be just the right place for him.
“He was born in Palermo and we consider him a citizen of Palermo. This city would welcome him with open arms – he would be adored here. It would be a dream for Palermo to have a player like him and he could be the leader of this team.”
Zamperini has been in contact with the players agent and tols Corriere dello Sport that, “I called Raiola and he passed the phone over to Balotelli. Mario confessed straight away that he’d be happy to come to Palermo.
“We did discuss the economic situation and I explained we could not afford wages above a certain level.
“This would be an opportunity for him, but he’d need to make a sacrifice to relaunch his career at this level.
“We are interested, so we need Raiola to understand that Balotelli must reboot. He needs a club like Palermo, which is of course where he was born, too – it would be a huge advantage in the long run.
“We are very happy to keep him for a year and get him back to being the world-class striker he once was.”
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