Italian striker Mario Balotelli has been offered a £43,000-a-week transfer to Turkish club Besiktas, according to reports.
Balotelli has been frozen out by current club Brescia and he has been given the chance to end his Serie A hell by Besiktas.
The 29-year-old still got two years left to run on his deal with his hometown side.
But in early June, he was effectively “sacked” by the Italian outfit after bust-up with the club’s chief and former Leeds supremo Massimo Cellino.
However, he has been handed a football lifeline by Besiktas, who are in talks with his agent Mino Raiola, according to Italian transfer guru Nicolo Schira.
Balotelli fuelled the fire yesterday (Sunday) when he posted heart emojis in response to a Besiktas fan page that tagged him in a message imploring him to join the Turkish side.
It was recently claimed that Balotelli’s contract with Brescia was set to be terminated at the end of the 2019/20 campaign.
But he was reportedly given his marching orders earlier than planned after missing ten days of training.
And he was then denied entry to Brescia’s training base and sent packing by security just days later.
According to La Gazzetta no legal action was taken as an agreement was reached with Balotelli’s lawyers.
The Italian returned to join his home town club in August 2019 after stints with Nice and Marseille.
He scored five goals in 19 Serie A appearances for Diego Lopez’s side this season.
But he caused a stir when he started missing training sessions when lockdown restrictions were eased.
He put his absence down to stomach problems, but reports revealed he had been spotted training alone.
Balotelli initially put pen to paper on a £160,000-per-week Brescia deal last summer – but Cellino has labelled it a “mistake”.
Speaking to BBC’s World Football programme, he said: “I think we both made a mistake.
“I thought that coming to Brescia, which is his town, would commit him very much.
“At the same time, I think he was handled the wrong way by my previous coach [Eugenio Corini].”
