PARIS, France, Oct 17 – Mario Balotelli has welcomed the birth of his second son, Lion, with a photograph posted in the build-up to Nice’s Europa League clash with Lazio this week.
Reports in Italy last month claimed the former Liverpool and Manchester City striker’s girlfriend Clelia had given birth to a baby boy named Lion in Zurich.
And now Balotelli, 27, has posed with his second child for the first time to confirm the news. Lion, at almost three weeks old, is a brother to the forward’s four-year-old daughter Pia.
Balotelli had previously kept quiet about the pregnancy, although he did take to Instagram in September to share a snapshot of a pregnant woman’s belly, alongside the simple caption: ‘Loading’.
READ: Made-up Mario poses with his baby boy Lion
On this occasion, his post read: ‘Good night #Father&Son’.
The eccentric striker, whose nomadic career has taken him through Italy, England and France, recently claimed to have matured after the controversies that plagued his early career.
He said: ‘I haven’t changed. I’ve matured, I’m growing. I’m not 17 anymore, with experience you grow.
‘I’m not one of the best in the world and I’m not one of the worst in the world. I’m only myself, like always.’
Nice host Lazio on Thursday night in the Europa League with both sides on six points after winning their opening games against Vitesse Arnhem and Zulte Waregem.