Mario Balotelli, the 23-year-old, mohawked star forward of Italy and AC Milan, is the best young striker in futbol.
Claudio Vil/Getty Images
It's 10:30 a.m. on a Tuesday at the St. Regis hotel in Miami Beach, and
(what else is new?) Mario Balotelli is drawing a crowd. In exactly one
week Super Mario will meet Pope Francis, who will single out Balotelli
for a private-audience from among a group that includes Lionel Messi and
the Argentine and Italian national soccer teams. But here in this
Balo-benighted swath of Florida the story is different. Posing for an SI
photo shoot, the 23-year-old star forward of Italy and AC Milan is
towering -- 6' 2", shirtless, Mohawked, arms extended wide -- on a
plexiglass platform that makes it look as though he's walking on the
liquid surface of a swimming pool.
Perhaps the pope would approve. Perhaps not.
Gawkers gather and snap cellphone photographs. One tourist, bare-chested
and pot-bellied, takes a stab at the subject's identity. "Shoot, is he a
politician?" the man asks, his voice amply 'Murcan. "My wife says I
should know him."
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