Mario Balotelli assures he is ready to be “a leader” at Brescia and regain his Italy place. “Before Roberto Mancini, it didn’t depend on me.”

The 29-year-old signed a multi-year contract with his hometown club Brescia, who just earned promotion to Serie A.

“I am truly, truly happy,” he grinned on Sky Sport Italia after spells at Nice and Olympique Marseille.

Mario Balotelli reveals his mother “cried” with happiness when he joined hometown club Brescia. “It was my Father’s dream to see me in this jersey.”

Although the striker was born in Palermo to Ghanaian parents, he moved to Brescia at the age of two and his adoptive family still lives there, although his Father died recently.

This is therefore a return to his hometown club, even though he started out in the youth academies of Lumezzane and then Inter, so never actually played for the Rondinelle.

Roberto Mancini is expecting big things from Italian players this season but has warned Mario Balotelli to get his act together at Brescia.

Mancini rated members of his Italy squad in the second part of his Gazzetta dello Sport interview, including ‘extraordinary’ Inter pair Stefano Sensi and Nicolo Barella, Federico Bernardeschi – who can become ‘one of the best’ – and ‘potential superstar’ Nicolo Zaniolo.

Roberto Mancini feels Juventus are ‘by far’ the best team in Serie A, Inter need ‘a bit of time’ to catch up with Napoli and that Milan can be ‘surprise packages’.

Mancini gave his Serie A predictions to Gazzetta dello Sport on Sunday, also passing judgment on Atalanta ahead of their Champions League debut and showing his support to Bologna boss Sinisa Mihajlovic as he continues his battle with cancer.

Roberto Mancini sent a message of encouragement to Sinisa Mihajlovic after the diagnosis of a serious illness. “You’re too strong, this won’t scare you.”

Fiorentina are ready to welcome Mario Balotelli, claim reports, but he has to lower his €4m wage demands first.

Coach Vincenzo Montella spoke fondly of the striker this week and President Rocco Commisso has also hinted at interest.

Balo is a free agent after his Olympique Marseille contract expired, so the only issue would be personal terms.

According to La Repubblica, the Viola are eager to welcome SuperMario, but he must bring the €4m per year salary down first.

New Italy Under-21 Coach Paolo Nicolato insists there will be “the utmost collaboration” with Roberto Mancini to prepare players for the Nazionale.

Gigi Di Biagio left after the desperately disappointing European Under-21 Championships, which saw hosts Italy crash out in the group stage after a defeat to Poland.

Nicolato took the Azzurrini to the Under-20 World Cup semi-finals, losing to eventual trophy winners Ukraine.

Italy CT Roberto Mancini could leave Moise Kean and Nicolo Zaniolo out of his squad for September’s Euro 2020 qualifiers.

Kean and Zaniolo were omitted from Italy’s 3-1 victory over Belgium at the U21 Euros on Saturday for lateness.

However, Gazzetta dello Sport warns they have previous, as seen by Mancini’s decision not to field the pair against Greece and Bosnia-Herzegovina earlier in the month.

Italy Coach Roberto Mancini urges Serie A sides and tacticians to learn from different cultures, just as he did at Manchester City, Galatasaray and Zenit.

The tactician held a lengthy interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport and you can read the rest of it HERE.

He turned his focus to the current Serie A scene with Antonio Conte taking over at Inter and Maurizio Sarri for Juventus.

Roberto Mancini explained his embrace of quality football and why Italy cannot limit their ambitions. “I want to win Euro 2020 and the World Cup.”

The CT sat down for a long interview with the Gazzetta dello Sport newspaper, covering a range of topics.

“It was a serious problem that the Italian people no longer felt affection for the Nazionale, because this is everyone’s team and has given us all moments of incredible joy.