Balotelli going nowhere in January – club president

Mario Balotelli will not be leaving Nice during the January transfer window, the French club’s president has told Nice Matin.

Balotelli last week told Italian media he would happily return to Manchester City “for free” while adding he had been in contact with two other former clubs in Serie A, AC Milan and Inter.

The Italy international forward signed a new one-year deal on the Mediterranean coast last summer and has again thrived, firing 16 goals in 21 games, just one strike shy of his tally for the entire 2016-17 campaign.

Those goals have helped Nice recover from a poor start to the season to ease into sixth place at the halfway stage of the campaign, and means Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere will not be allowing his star striker to go anywhere next month.

“Mario leaving? No, that’s impossible. You know his importance. It’s unimaginable,” he said, adding that even a weighty offer would not sway him.

“That’s not what interests us for Mario, but rather that he continues carrying the team onwards and upwards.”

Frank Jumbo with Agency Report