{"id":891,"date":"2014-08-26T17:08:39","date_gmt":"2014-08-26T17:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=891"},"modified":"2014-08-26T17:08:39","modified_gmt":"2014-08-26T17:08:39","slug":"balotelli-joins-liverpool-for-16m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=891","title":{"rendered":"Balotelli joins Liverpool for \u00a316m"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\"mario-balotelli-360x225\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Mario Balotelli has completed his \u00a316m Liverpool move and admitted he made a mistake leaving English football 18 months ago.<\/p>\n

The Italian striker watched his new side against his former club Manchester City on Monday night. Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, claimed he has pulled off a coup in securing the Italian, who has signed a three-year-deal, although he will not be registered with the Premier League until Tuesday (today).<\/p>\n

\u201cThis transfer represents outstanding value for the club and I think we have done a really smart piece of business here,\u201d said Rodgers.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no doubting Mario\u2019s ability; he is a world-class talent and someone who, for such a young age, has vast experience of playing at the very highest level.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has scored goals in the Premier League, in Italy, in the Champions League and for his country at international level.<\/p>\n

\u201cI believe we have the infrastructure, culture and environment to get the best out of him and help him achieve his true potential. We are a strong group here, committed to hard work and he will benefit from being around it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am looking forward to working with him and helping him learn more, improve and progress as a player. I\u2019m sure the supporters will make him feel very welcome.\u201d<\/p>\n

Balotelli was introduced to his teammates in the away dressing room before the fixture with the champions. The Italian said he was anxious to return to the Premier League, admitting he regrets leaving the country in 2013.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m happy to be back because I left England and it was a mistake,\u201d he said. \u201cI wanted to go to Italy but I realised it was a mistake. English football is generally better. English football is beautiful.<\/p>\n

\u201cLiverpool are one of the best teams here in England. The football is very good here. It\u2019s a great team with young players, and that\u2019s why I came here.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mario Balotelli has completed his \u00a316m Liverpool move and admitted he made a mistake leaving English football 18 months ago. The Italian striker watched his new side against his former club Manchester City on Monday night. Brendan Rodgers, the Liverpool manager, claimed he has pulled off a coup in securing the Italian, who has signed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/08\/mario-balotelli-360x225.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-en","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=891"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":893,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/891\/revisions\/893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/892"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=891"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=891"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=891"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}