Balotelli 'no role model'

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14 October 2012-PA Sport

Controversial ... City striker Mario Balotelli (Getty)

Manchester City chief Brian Marwood has hinted that Mario Balotelli is not the sort of role model the Barclays Premier League champion wants people looking up to.

Balotelli out for Italy

Balotelli has been involved in a number of well-documented incidents and controversies both on and off the pitch since joining City from Inter Milan in 2010.

The Italian has been involved in bust-ups with team-mates, threw a dart at a City youth team player and set off a firework in his own bathroom.

Asked about what kind of role model the 22-year-old Balotelli represents, chief football operations officer Marwood, quoted by several newspapers, said: "I think that it's important to make a good example.

"I think - and we all know who we are talking about - that you will get people within the system who do not show the right values and the right behaviour.

"In the main, we have a fantastic group of players here.

"I look at Pablo Zabaleta, Vincent Kompany, Joe Hart, Gareth Barry, Joleon Lescott. We have a lot of players who think and behave in the right way. You have to make sure they're the role models.'