Mario Balotelli got himself in the news again after posting a photo of himself eating ‘Jollof Rice’ on Facebook.
Still on vacation after the World Cup, the AC Milan striker finally admitted he is a Ghanaian by eating the typical Ghanaian food – ‘Jollof Rice’ – prepared with rice, tomato sauce, onion, salt and peppers. In some variations, you can add vegetables, fish or meat.
He wrote on his facebook timeline: “Back to my Ghanaian roots. Eating Jollof rice for the first time in 15 years.”
Balotelli was born in Palermo—on the Italian island of Sicily—in August 1990, to Ghanaian immigrant parents Thomas and Rose Barwuah, who moved north to Brescia almost immediately.
Aged just three, Mario was informally adopted by Francesco and Silvio Balotelli, a Jewish couple from Concesio, a small town at the foot of Mount Spina. At first, he only spent a few days a week with them, but soon he adopted their surname and his stay became permanent.
Balotelli believed he was abandoned by his parents in hospital when he was two. But Thomas and Rose adamantly deny and instead they claim their son has turned against them after being “manipulated” by his Italian foster parents, Francesco and Silvio Balotelli.
The Italian striker has since ended his long-running feud with his birth parents, and even spent Christmas Day with his mother Rose Barwuah in December 2012.