Anyone who has ever watched a soccer game knows that players will take a dive for any possible strategic advantage. But what about to get their hands on the latest iPhone?
According to a new report, the answer is a resounding yes. Highly-paid Liverpool striker Mario Balotelli — a man known for his erratic behavior — is said to have feigned an injury during a training game in 2014 so as to get hold of Apple’s latest handset.
Balotelli reportedly became understandably jealous when he saw a teammate sporting the iPhone 6, shortly after its launch. Less understandably, the sports star responded by claiming to have pulled a hamstring in an attempt to get sent off for a medical check-up.
According to the Liverpool Echo newspaper,
“When the Liverpool squad returned to the dressing room at the end of the session 90 minutes later, they were surprised by what greeted them.
There was a beaming Balotelli sat in the corner, with a new iPhone 6 in his hand and a few spares boxed up next to him. One of his minions had been hastily dispatched to do some shopping. The pain in his hamstring had miraculously eased.”
Okay, so it’s not a story that shows Balotelli in the best of lights, but we do understand the desire to get hold of the latest iPhone by any means possible.
Hey, it could’ve been worse — he might have faked an injury for a Samsung Galaxy!
Luke Dormehl is a U.K.-based journalist and author, with a background working in documentary film for Channel 4 and the BBC. He is the author of The Apple Revolution and The Formula: How Algorithms Solve All Our Problems … and Create More, both published by Penguin/Random House. His tech writing has also appeared in Wired, Fast Company, Techmeme and other publications.
7 responses to “Premiership soccer player faked injury to grab the latest iPhone”
Correction, it’s Premiership Football, get it right.
Believe me, as an Englishman, writing Premiership soccer does physically pain me. But with the majority of this site’s readers being American it seemed best to avoid NFL confusion.
And besides the word ‘soccer’ was coined in England by Englishmen. Supposedly by some Oxford toff. It was short for ‘association football’ which was the name given the sport to distinguish it back then from another ball-kicking sport called ‘rugby football’. Furthermore, the sport now referred to as ‘football’ in the rest of the world other than the U.S. and Australia, was called ‘soccer’ in England before it was called ‘football’. Hmmph.
But didn’t rugby start because someone picked up a football and started running with it during a game? This feels like one of those time travel paradoxes.
Well, actually according to the internet, which is never wrong, ‘football’ originally meant any game involving scrambling and fighting over a ball (soccer, rugby, hockey or its precursors?) where the players are on foot. As opposed to games, played mainly by the ‘quality’, that also involve scrambling and fighting over a ball, but the the players are on horseback. Don’t ask me, I didn’t write the internet, I only read, quote and occasionally, misquote it.
If he’d faked an injury for a Samsung, best give him a cat scan just to be safe.
In any event… the nutcase that is Mario Balotelli is no longer in the Premier League, since Liverpool had the good sense to offload him back to Serie A and Milan on a season long loan. And he is Italian after all.