Wednesday, September 22, 2021 at 6:18 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 18:20

Besiktas has urged the Turkish Football Association to impose a penalty on Mario Balotelli. The reason is Tuesday evening’s game between Besiktas and Adana Demirspor. The PhD student came back from a 3-0 deficit, partly due to a goal from Balotelli, and was left with one point in the game: 3-3. After his goal, the striking forward rushed to Besiktas’ bench to insult trainer Sergen Yalcin by pointing two fingers at his head. The latter accused Balotelli of being ‘brainless’ in the past.

“We strongly condemn the action,” Besiktas said in an official statement on the club’s website. “We are curious what punishment the player in question will receive. We will never accept such an action. A football player with a criminal record, who exhibited illegal and unethical behavior, was punished from the moment he came inside the lines until he went to the dressing room tolerated by the referee and the fourth man.The right of our members to watch matches with healthy and sporting values, should never be taken away from them.

The bad relationship between Balotelli and Yalcin has its roots in 2011, when the Turkish coach lashed out at the striker after his heel in the famous exhibition game between Los Angeles Galaxy and Manchester City. Balotelli then decided to produce a heel in a promising position, after which he was replaced by manager Roberto Mancini. “This boy has no brains,” Yalcin said at the time. “You can make a blunder, that is inherent in football. But this is disrespectful to the opponent and it reflects the character of the player.”

Also on Tuesday evening, Yalcin did not know what hit him. “It’s the first time I’ve seen a football player do something like that to the opponent’s coach,” the Besiktas coach said after the game. “I don’t understand why he did this. He was probably motivated for this game because he couldn’t sign with us last year.” Balotelli himself continued via social media. “We have brains and more importantly, we have a big heart. We are proud of that,” emphasized the Italian.