Less than a day before the Manchester derby, Mario Balotelli had other plans: setting off fireworks inside the bathroom of his own home.
In the early hours of October 22, 2011, two fire crews equipped with breathing apparatus arrived at his five-bedroom mansion in Cheshire.
A mansion valued at 3 million pounds, to put out what they described as “a considerable fire” on the first floor.
Balotelli and four friends had been setting off fireworks through an open window. The police did not even let him go back inside to get his things.
No one was injured, and the Italian trained as normal that same morning. The next day he took to the field, scored two goals in the 6-1 thrashing of United, and lifted his shirt to reveal a message that summed up his entire life: “Why Always Me?”.