On loan AC Milan striker Mario Balotelli. (Photo : Getty Images)
Liverpool transfer flop Mario Balotelli is reportedly going to earn double of what he is currently receiving from the English Premier League squad if he decides to move to the Chinese Super League next season.
SB Nation noted that the Chinese Super League is perhaps the only top flight competition in the world that "could afford to gamble" on the underachieving Balotelli, after the Chinese government decided to "grow the sport from the top down" led by no less than the country's president himself, Xi Jinping.
Balotelli is currently playing on loan with Serie A squad AC Milan and could still not get things going in his career, scoring only once in 14 games played for the San Siro residents as a striker.
The 25-year-old Italy international also had stints with Manchester City and Inter Milan, also two of the top clubs in England and Italy, and both of them went fruitless as well.
The CSL had been aggressive in acquiring foreign talent in the past few years, especially during the recent winter transfer window where the Chinese transfer record was broken four times, capped by the £39 million signing of Liverpool target Alex Teixeira by Jiangsu Suning from Shakhtar Donetsk in February of this year.
The report revealed that according to a local Italian news outlet, Jiangsu Suning had also recently "approached Balotelli with an offer of £225k per week in wages", allegedly double of what he is currently earning with Liverpool, and the Reds are said to be more than willing to sell him to the Chinese club even at a loss as they are keen in getting his paycheck off their books moving forward.
Late in February, reports were out that Liverpool executive Billy Hogan visited an undisclosed club in China to discuss selling Balotelli, as per Metro.
Whether it is Jiangsu Suning or not is not specifically mentioned, but what it certain is that the Anfield giants are serious about letting go of the Palermo, Italy native at all costs.
Balotelli was signed by Liverpool in the summer of 2014 from AC Milan for a transfer fee of £16 million in hopes of trying to take over the role of the Barcelona-bound Luis Suárez during that time.
However, it was all downhill for Balotelli since then as he only scored one goal in 16 domestic appearances for the Reds in 2014-2015 before he was sent on loan back to Milan this season.
