Galliani takes swipe at player’s agent.
AC Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani has insisted that he is not worried over the future of striker Mario Balotelli as he says the latest round of speculation has been ignited by an agent that “loves to provoke”, Sky Sports reports.
Balotelli’s representative, Mino Raiola, stated that the Italian international is more than likely to move abroad again at some stage in his career, with the 23-year-old having returned to his homeland from Manchester City only last January.
Riaola also lashed out at the Italian press, who he claims place too great a media storm at his young clients feet.
However, despite the recent claims made by Raiola, Galliani has insisted that he is not losing any sleep over them and believes that the striker is happy in Milan where he is contracted until 2017.
“Mino is clever. He loves to provoke,” Galliani said.
“I have known Mino for many years and we shouldn’t worry.
“More so because Balotelli has four years left on his contract.”
Raiola had stated that he intended to “analyse things” with the Rossoneri, and the agent has labelled the media’s constant scrutiny of Balotelli’s every move as “not good”.
“Probably Italy will not be the final stage of his (Balotelli’s) career,” said Raiola to Italian TV channel Mediaset.
“But he has still many years left in his contract and I don’t want to think that he needs to leave because of the reason that there is too much pressure on him.”
“There’s too much attention on him and we have to accept it and manage it as best we can,” he added.
“But it is exaggerated. Even in England, the attention on him was exaggerated but you could deal with it.
“I think here whatever Mario does is reported, every story is blown out of proportion.
“My wish is to speak of football when Mario’s name is mentioned and not about the rest.
“It’s (media attention) not good, period. Everyone needs to calm down.
“We will analyse things with Milan.”