"TAC's 'Quite a character' Award 2010 goes to.....

...Mario Balotelli. Please come up to the stage and except your award."

"I'd like to thank....umm, nobody"

 That's right ladies and gentlemen, the 2010 They All Count 'Quite a character' Award has been awarded to Manchester City's 'Super' Mario Balotelli. In a close run battle for the much coveted award, that press outlets have also dubbed 'disrespectful loudmouth simpleton of the year', Balotelli put in a commendable late push for the win - fighting off close contenders Patrice Evra and Carlos Tevez.

In the last week Mario, presumably after discovering that he was nominated for the 'Quite a character' award, really pulled out the stops to cement his unpredictable, unmanageable and unbelievable image - with three finely crafted media stunts, arranged by his PR team to raise his profile at this vital time in the selection process.


1. The 'zany' headwear stunt.

In a football climate that is currently fixated with what players are wearing above the shoulders, it has to be said that Mario's choice of headwear - modelled for the camera pre-mondays premier league loss to Everton - was a real stroke of promotional genius. Forget the snood (please, please forget the snood - its a scarf, get over it) if you really want to cause a stir then take a leaf out of Mario's book by taking a leaf from Feathers McGraw's book...

You can only assume that Mario's headwear choice was influenced by the king of questionable headwear, Man City teamate, Emmanuel Adebayor - seen below modelling his 'village people/rent boy' bondage hat

2. The 'breathtaking disrespect' stunt

It has certainly been a good week for young Mario, picking up not one but two awards. Second to his TACQAC award, he was also presented with the 'Golden boy' award by an Italian sports paper, sighting him as the best young player in the world. But what did Mario have to say on the awards runner-up, England international and Arsenal first team regular Jack Wilshere?

“What's his name? Wil...? No, I just don't know him, but the next time I play against Arsenal I'll try to be careful. Maybe I could show him the Golden Boy trophy and remind him that I won.”

Modest to a fault our Mario. Presumably this comment will go someway towards earning the sort of vilification that Mario was famous for during his time in Serie A, which is a shame. If you think the above comment was ill-advised, then your not going to believe what else he said in the same interview...

3. The 'blasphemy' stunt

Maybe it was something he had to eat or drink - whatever it was Mario was certainly on a roll when accepting his Golden Boy trophy. After dismissing one of England's brightest young talents with one breath, Mario decided that this was not a controversial enough comment and that something more impressive would be needed to secure his 'quite a character' award. Not a problem...

"There is only one player who is a little stronger than me - Messi. All the others are behind me."

 Wow. Now it certainly takes a massive pair of balls to come out with a statement like that, as I am sure there are a few players out there who might disagree with his comment. At least he is modest enough to conceded that Messi is a 'little' stronger than he, as saying anything to contrary would have surely been a statement so laced with blasphemy that God himself would strike him down.