Mario Balotelli, the soccer player is not Jewish, but his foster mother is Jewish. Mario Balotelli was born in Palermo, Sicily to immigrants from Ghana.
Mario Balotelli's family moved to Bagnolo Mella in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, when he was two. In 1993, the authorities suggested he be placed into foster care. The Barwuah family gave up the three-year-old boy to an Italian foster family, the Balotellis. His foster parents are Silvia, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors and Francesco Balotelli. They lived in the town of Concesio, Brescia, in northern Italy. Mario has three biological siblings: Abigail, Enoch, and Angel Barwuah.
At first, he stayed at the Balotellis during the weekdays, and returned to his biological parents on weekends. But after a while he started to be indifferent towards his biological parents and adopted the surname of the Balotellis, and it was arranged for him to be permanently fostered by the Balotellis. In June 2012, he dedicated his goals that put Italy in the final of the Euro 2012 football championships to his foster mother Silvia, and rushed over to embrace her as she wept after the win.
In December 2014 he started quite a scandal when he posted an image of Super Mario (Nintendo character) to his Instagram account in what was dubbed a racist and anti-Semitic post. Balotelli published a photo to the social media site of the Nintendo character Super Mario that read, among other things, “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”
Balotelli, also dubbed ‘Super Mario,’ said the post was his “unlucky moment” and later deleted the image.
The rest of the text read: “Don’t be racist. Be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber, created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican.”
A spokesman for the FA said the governing body can take action where it believes an individual has “bought the game into disrepute by making comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or color and/or race,” The Guardian reported.
Mario Balotelli's family moved to Bagnolo Mella in the province of Brescia, Lombardy, when he was two. In 1993, the authorities suggested he be placed into foster care. The Barwuah family gave up the three-year-old boy to an Italian foster family, the Balotellis. His foster parents are Silvia, the Jewish daughter of Holocaust survivors and Francesco Balotelli. They lived in the town of Concesio, Brescia, in northern Italy. Mario has three biological siblings: Abigail, Enoch, and Angel Barwuah.
At first, he stayed at the Balotellis during the weekdays, and returned to his biological parents on weekends. But after a while he started to be indifferent towards his biological parents and adopted the surname of the Balotellis, and it was arranged for him to be permanently fostered by the Balotellis. In June 2012, he dedicated his goals that put Italy in the final of the Euro 2012 football championships to his foster mother Silvia, and rushed over to embrace her as she wept after the win.
In December 2014 he started quite a scandal when he posted an image of Super Mario (Nintendo character) to his Instagram account in what was dubbed a racist and anti-Semitic post. Balotelli published a photo to the social media site of the Nintendo character Super Mario that read, among other things, “jumps like a black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”
Balotelli, also dubbed ‘Super Mario,’ said the post was his “unlucky moment” and later deleted the image.
The rest of the text read: “Don’t be racist. Be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber, created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican.”
A spokesman for the FA said the governing body can take action where it believes an individual has “bought the game into disrepute by making comments which included a reference to ethnic origin and/or color and/or race,” The Guardian reported.
