10 most outrageous and controversial quotes in world football

Footballers are humans too. One of the most often repeated cliches in sport, any crimes and misdemeanours committed by the prima donnas of the game are explained by this statement. They make mistakes too.After all, how long can you live under the constant fear of paparazzi guzzling up every word of yours? How long can you last before you become a public relations sensation or disaster or both?The normal ones find it easy. The characters do not. They are the Jose Mourinhos and the Jurgen Klopps of the game. The ones who make headlines with every word, tweet and line. They can be as funny as Jerry Seinfeld, as nasty as Vickie Guerrero or as stupid as Piers Morgan.And that is precisely why the game needs more like them. Here are ten such bizarre, yet memorable instances which prove that the beautiful game is indeed a quotable game.

#10 When Mario Balotelli asked a frank question

“Does a postman celebrate when he delivers post?”

The European championships can get to a young footballer. The beaming lights, the pressure and the relentless, eternal stoicism of Vicente Del Bosque can get to anybody’s nerves. Some wilt under the experience. Others thrive. Some others grab the tournament by the scruff of its neck and shake it around, giving it some much-needed fillip. Now, Mario Balotelli was no ordinary man. He certainly belonged to the latter category.

Having gained fame for making even Jose Mourinho speechless as a promising youngster at Inter Milan, the then Manchester City forward asked this unanswerable, existential and utterly ludicrous question to journalists who were obsessing on his joylessness.

The next day, he delivered not one but two mails into Manuel Neuer’s post (no pun intended), thus helping Italy deliver their eighth consecutive major tournament triumph on Die Mannschaft. Surely, ze Germans must’ve thought “Why always us?”.