For The Second Time In His Career, Mario Balotelli Scores Serie A’s First Goal Of The New Decade

Back in January of 2010, Mario Balotelli was a 19-year-old phenom clashing daily with José Mourinho in the midst of Inter Milan’s treble-winning season. On Jan. 6 of that year, Balotelli scored Serie A’s first goal of the decade when providing the game-winning strike against Chievo Verona in the 12th minute. It was his fifth goal of the 2009-10 league campaign.

Fast forward 10 years and it’s Balotelli again with Serie A’s first goal of the new decade. A lot has changed: Super Mario is now 29 and playing with his relegation-threatened hometown team Brescia. But much remains the same: This was Balotelli’s fifth goal of the 2019-20 league campaign and it gave his side an early 1-0 lead.  

Unfortunately for Mario and Brescia, Lazio would storm back for a 2-1 win through Ciro Immobile’s 18th and 19th goals of the season. 

The victory was Lazio’s ninth-straight in Serie A, a run which ties a 20-year-old club record. Lazio remains only three points behind joint-leaders Inter and Juventus and actually has a superior goal difference to both clubs. 

Finally, we can’t talk about Brescia anymore without mentioning 19-year-old phenom Sandro Tonali, aka “the Next Andrea Pirlo.” Here’s a meandering run he went on today that lasted for about a minute. 

Sandro Tonali kan geweldig voetballen. Kwestie van tijd tot hij naar een topclub vertrekt. pic.twitter.com/EcjCTvFqNa

— Wesley Victor Mak (@WesleyVictorM) January 5, 2020

He’s silky smooth. 

Sandro Tonali

Passing range
Vision
Technique
Ball winning

19 years old, the boy is a special player. Easy to see why the comparison is a cross of Pirlo/Gattuso. pic.twitter.com/3tG9kIjZpf

— Alfredco Morelos (@Pena_Cartel) January 5, 2020