Profile Text
Balotelli in 2011, photo by Photo Works/Bigstock.com
Birth Name: Mario Barwuah
Place of Birth: Palermo, Sicily, Italy
Date of Birth: 12 August, 1990
Ethnicity: Ghanaian [Ashanti]
Mario Balotelli, full name Mario Balotelli Barwuah, is an Italian professional footballer. A striker, he plays for Al-Ittifaq. He was previously with Lumezzane, Inter Milan, Manchester City, AC Milan, Liverpool, Nice, Marseille, Brescia, Monza, Adana Demirspor, Sion, and Genoa, and the Italy national team.
Mario was born in Palermo, Sicily, Italy, to Ghanaian parents, Rose and Thomas Barwuah. They are from Konongo, a community in the Asante Akim North Municipal District, Ashanti Region. In 1993, after his own family was unable to pay for his health care needs, he was placed in foster care. He was raised by foster parents, an Italian couple, Silvia and Francesco Balotelli. He became an Italian national at the age of eighteen.
Silvia Balotelli’s mother was a German Jew from Wrocław, Silesia, now Poland, who lost her relatives in the Holocaust. She married an Italian pilot and moved with him to Italy.
Mario has a daughter with his former partner, showgirl, singer, and model Raffaella Fico; and a son with another partner.
Source: http://archiviostorico.gazzetta.it