Mario Balotelli's claim to 'intellectual property' might fall on death ears

Mario Balotelli is always a player that makes the headlines, and usually for all the wrong reasons. The guy could fail to put the toilet seat down and there would be some form of uproar about is lack of respect.

He does bring the majority of this negative press upon himself however; fireworks, red-cards, dressing up as Santa…whatever. True or not the fact remains that Brian Marwood was extremely reluctant to highlight the 22-year-old as a role model when pressed on the issue in a press conference.

As City started work on their brand spanking new £100million Etihad training complex; designed to give a more sustainable model of success than the current ‘buy-ready-made-talent’ procedure they currently operate Marwood instead concentrated on the likes of Joe Hart, Vincent Kompany, Pablo Zabaleta and Gareth Barry when it came to highlighting potential role model’s for their future first-team stars.

So Mario’s credibility as a role-model is in doubt, and secondly it has emerged that Mario Balotelli reportedly asked Umbro for commission on the now infamous ‘Why Always Me?’ T-shirts they retail.

The Italian reportedly wanted a commission for the intellectual property of the words as Umbro were making money off the slogan that he famously revealed to the world after scoring in Manchester City’s 6-1 thrashing of city rivals United.

Officially there is no word on whether this actually happened however Manchester City kit-man Les Chapman stated that ‘Super Mario’ had asked him to get in touch with the kit suppliers about potential commission.

While he has since gone on to work with Umbro on an ad campaign with Tinchy Stryder, and no legal action would ever have been realistically likely the thought of Mario Balotelli claiming intellectual property must tickle even the most hardened of City follower.

When you look back at this famous video you can see why any claim for intellectual property could likely be thrown out the window by anyone in a sane disposition…

Hmmm…

image: © wonker