'Leave Mario Balotelli alone'

That’s the message from Italy coach Cesare Prandelli a day after the striker was accused of drug dealing by a confessed member of the Neopolitan Camorra crime group. ‘It’s intolerable to keep coming after him and dragging him into every situation,’ Prandelli said on Friday ahead of a friendly with San Marino.

‘I can’t even imagine him dealing drugs as a joke.’ The accusation from Armando De Rosa came during testimony in a money laundering trial in which Balotelli also testified in 2011.