After eight years of nursing and keeping hold of a grudge, Mario Balotelli got his vengeance on the manager who called him “brainless.” 

Balotelli has quite a history of getting fans, players, officials, and a slew of other people irritated. From his management, fans to the fans of the teams he’s playing against; no one has escaped the striker’s wrath.

Mario was playing for Manchester City in a preseason game on a visit to the United States in 2013. In that very tour, he had one of his most memorable moments of Balotelli at his peak.

When racing through on goal, one-on-one with the keeper, versus LA Galaxy, the Italian striker strangely opted to backheel the ball. That had resulted in him missing the clear shot, prompting his dismissal. Watching that, Sergen Yalcin, a retired Turkey footballer and a commentator at the time, had allegedly labeled the City forward as “brainless.”

Fast forward a few years to today, Balotelli was playing for Adana Demirspor and faced Besiktas, now headed by Yalcin, on Tuesday night. Besiktas went ahead 3-0. Later, Mattias Vargas made it 3-1, and Balotelli netted in the 79th minute to bring his team back in contention for a point. He congratulated himself by sprinting over to the other bench and gesturing towards his brain, which without any doubt was intended towards Sergen Yalcin.

Balotelli’s antics didn’t appear to go down quite well, as the 31-year-old managed to instigate a squabble amongst the players from both of the teams. 

Besiktas was associated with a transfer for the ex-Inter Milan striker the previous season. But he eventually signed for Serie B side Monza after leaving his hometown team, Brescia. Reportedly, that deal fell through, and Yalcin was just not thrilled with the connections in the first place, stating the club wanted a ‘less troublesome’ player.

The Besiktas coach revealed that on the inquiry of the club president, he had asked for a ‘less troublesome’ player, but hadn’t said a straight no.

After Mario Balotelli made it 3-2, Britt Assombalonga, a veteran Nottingham Forest forward, equalized in the 97th minute to end Yalcin’s night.

Eight years later, payback was delivered in the most chill and the funniest manner possible. Whatever be all of it for, Balotelli’s degree of pettiness is what stands out the most.