Football News: Carroll praised by Alan Shearer, Balotelli suffers racist abuse in Italy vs. Romania
Andy Carroll, who made his debut for England in their 2-1 loss to the French national team at the Wembley stadium, has earned massive praise from his childhood hero, Alan Shearer. Carroll plays for the same club that Shearer used to play
for i.e. Newcastle United in the English Premier League. The striker was a bright spot in England’s abysmal performance against their European rivals. Fabio Capello and Rio Ferdinand both showered the striker with compliments after the match as Shearer also
joined in.
Alan Shearer said in his interview to the press, "I thought he battled well, his touch was good and I thought he won his fair share in the air and he was probably the only positive of the night. But I hope people don't get on the young
guys' backs because none of them really shone last night. I hope they are given another chance. I hope (Capello) sticks with the young guys because I think it does need freshening up."
Carroll has been previously criticized for misbehaving in his personal life. Recently, the striker was in trouble with the law enforcement authorities as he had attacked his ex-girlfriend. However, Shearer remarked, "We must not forget
he's 21 and obviously never been in this position before. I think what's important now is he learns from his mistakes, realizes that now he is a senior, full international which doesn't compare to the under-21s. He will have to realize now the spotlight will
be on him for the next 10 or 15 years because of that."
In other news, Mario Balotelli received some horrendous racial abuse at the hands of his own national team’s supporters in Italy’s recent friendly match against Romania. The 20-year-old striker who plays for Manchester City dealt with
the abuse quite professionally as he didn’t react with anger to the embarrassing behaviour of the Italian fans in the crowd. Balotelli spoke to the media after the game as he said, "Honestly, I don't know what to say. If I have to hear those chants every time,
you can't go forward like that. I leave others to do the judgment. I am happy to be in the national team."
This was not the first time that the striker was a subject of racist chants as in the past when he used to play for Inter Milan, rival fans used to taunt Mario about the colour of his skin. In 2009, Juventus even got a penalty due to which
they had to play a match behind closed doors as per the laws of the game because their fans had indulged in racist chants towards Balotelli.
Mario added to his comments as he said, "It wouldn't be right to stop a game because a few fans that turn up to the stadium behave like that. We need to change these people but it's not me that has to do it. Where I live, the people don't
reason like these people. A multi-ethnic Italy already exists and we can do better. I would like to see that in Manchester they speak of these problems and not of my girlfriends”.
Italy’s coach Prandelli was also shocked at the conduct of his team’s supporters as he termed their behaviour as shocking. Italy’s footballing federation’s president, Giancarlo Abete also joined in on the condemnation as he said "This
is something that must be condemned. This is unacceptable behaviour."
Tags: