Mario Balotelli Photos

Mario Balotelli and Robin van Persie scored two goals each for their national sides in Tuesday's World Cup qualifiers, with Van Persie's strikes in Holland's 4-0 victory over Romania liftingthe Manchester United striker above Johan Cruyff in the Oranje's all-time scorers table.

David Beckham is set to take on Joey Barton in his Paris Saint-Germain debut, Mario Balotelli looks to continue his incredible goalscoring start in Milan and Bradford could lift the first major trophy of the season.

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini tells reporters at a press conference that with Mario Balotelli no longer at the club they will have nothing to talk about

Following the confirmed departure of Mario Balotelli the expectation is that the final hours of the 2013 January transfer window will be a quiet one as far as City are concerned. Perhaps there may be a late, unexpected big money signing or a David Pizzaro short term arrival, but the likelihood is Roberto Mancini and co opt to play out the season with the current squad as is. Similarly, in terms of departures not much is anticipated with some of the younger players perhaps moving out on short term loans. Still, it should be a busy day as far as the Premier League is concerned so thro...

Hundreds of fans waited outside a Milan restaurant to welcome latest signing Mario Balotelli to AC Milan on Wednesday

• City confirm controversial striker's return to Italy• Balotelli made 80 City appearances since 2010• Live: follow transfer deadline day as it happens Mario Balotelli's turbulent Manchester City career is over after the club confirmed the controversial striker has completed his move to Milan on a four-and-a-half-year contract.The initial fee is understood to be €20m (£17m), with another €5m of potential add-ons depending on appearances.The 22-year-old, who pulled out of the City squad on Tuesday evening before the 0-0 draw at QPR as the deal neared fruition, joined City in 2010, making 80 app...

• Italy striker underwent medical on Wednesday• 'It's been a long time that I've wanted to play for Milan'The Italy striker Mario Balotelli arrived in Milan to finalise his move from Manchester City to Milan on Wednesday. Milan announced on Tuesday that they had reached an agreement with City and that Balotelli would sign a four-and-a-half-year deal following a medical.Balotelli flew from Manchester on a private plane along with Milan's vice–president, Adriano Galliani. "It's been a long time that I've wanted to play for Milan, but I was playing for other clubs so I couldn't come here," Balote...

Manchester City fan James Hopkin followed the mercurial striker to Euro 2012 – and even then he acted weird. But things were to get a whole lot worseAt Manchester City, my club, we are used to battling, unglamorous strikers – Rösler, Dickov, Quinn, Walsh, Goater, Dzeko. But Balotelli was an athlete, towering above the mini-maestros, Tevez and Agüero; a winning combination of muscle and skill (even if the concentration and commitment were often lacking).However, his presence at City can be summed up by the two home matches I attended over Christmas. At the Reading match, in which Mario did not ...

The Premier League is said by many to be predictable but more than half its participants veer wildly from the scriptIt will soon be time to laugh and cry and cry and laugh about it all again, but before that we might reflect for a moment on how wildly unpredictable is football itself, and not only its highest-profile, best-paid, most infuriatingly inconsistent performers.The young Italian whose stunning goals propelled his country to the Euro 2012 final could have lit up the Premier League this season had he shown even a flicker of that form. The stage appeared set for Roberto Mancini to unlea...

Manchester City manager Roberto Mancini says Mario Balotelli was loved at the club and he 'deserves' to have the chance of Serie A football with Milan

So what may be the best method in order to evaluate Mario Balotelli's two and a half year career with City? For me it's best to look at league performance. That provides us with the largest sample size, and it has been, arguably, City's number one priority over the previous 2 years. So let's look at Mario's 3 seasons with the club, with a focus on minutes played, time on pitch %, shots, shots on target and goals. Naturally any purely statistical evaluation will not include details on the ability of Man City's strikers to make intelligent runs, clever passes, display excellent build up ...

Mario Balotelli's colourful and often chaotic career in English football is over after Manchester City agreed to sell him to AC Milan in a deal worth £19.5million. Read the headlines from Wednesday, January 30.

The directness of the Ivorian midfielder, currently in South Africa, was needed to fire City's attack, not their departing strikerA run of wins, they said. That's what Queens Park Rangers need to stay up. After a feverishly-fought 0-0 draw against Manchester City on a night of swirling rain at Loftus Road Harry Redknapp, in his role of emergency managerial defibrillator, was at least on the verge of delivering the next best thing: a run of draws. A third consecutive draw inches Rangers along at the bottom.For City this was a night of much possession, some fine interplay and a slight lack of in...

• Decision to sell striker made after training ground fight• Roberto Mancini lost patience after heart-to-heart talkMario Balotelli will fly to Milan on Wednesday to complete his transfer from Manchester City as new details emerge of why Roberto Mancini decided it was futile to continue believing the striker would stop letting him down.Mancini's patience finally snapped because of the events leading to the late and dangerous challenge on Scott Sinclair that led to the embarrassing series of photographs showing City's manager grappling with Balotelli at the club's training ground on 3 January.T...

• Striker's £17m move to Milan set to be sealed on Wednesday• 'We love Mario and he deserves to have this chance'Roberto Mancini suggested he had sanctioned Mario Balotelli's sale to Milan for the good of the player, describing the maverick forward as "like another one of my children" and saying the Italian could become one of the best players in the world when restored to Serie A.Balotelli is expected to complete his £17m move on Wednesday after a controversial two and a half years at City, patience having snapped at his antics on and off the pitch. The 22-year-old clashed regularly with Manc...