FORMER INTER MIDFIELDER Kerlon has hailed Mario Balotelli as a “very nice guy”, but revealed that the striker had a bizarre habit of urinating on his team-mates’ boots.
Kerlon signed for Inter in 2008 but failed to make a single league appearance for the club, instead being loaned to Chievo, Ajax, Parana and Nacional-NS during his time in Milan.
But the 27-year-old remembers his time with Balotelli very well, admitting that the Italy international had a very strange way of conducting himself in the dressing room.
“Balotelli is a very nice guy and an extraordinary person, but he did some unbelievable things off the pitch,” Kerlon told ESPN Brazil .
“He had a habit of arriving at training before anyone else and peeing on all the players’ boots… it was very funny.
“I’ve never seen a kid at 18-years-old do something like it and not feel sorry for any of it, even to Julio Cesar and Maicon.
Kerlon, who was a highly rated youngster at Cruzeiro before he moved to the Italian club, reflected on his time at Inter and said he never tried his famous ‘seal dribble’ — running past opponents while balancing the ball on his head — in training because of the height and power of defenders such as Marco Materazzi, Lucio and Walter Samuel.
“I did a pre-season with Jose Mourinho at Inter, but I never tried the dribble,” Kerlon said.
“The guys were very tall and strong, it’s complicated.
“If Materazzi hit me, I would fly away.”
