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With Mario Balotelli having traveled to Milan last night, today the striker is undergoing a medical ahead of a return to the club he spent a season and a half at before moving to Liverpool last summer. His time at Anfield is nearly officially over. It will not be fondly remembered.
"I’m happy to be back," Balotelli told reporters when he landed back in Italy, though reports claim the clubs have yet to settle on the final terms of his loan deal. "I don’t want to talk, though. I need to work. Physically I’m good, and this club is in my heart. I want to work and to prove myself."
It has already been confirmed by multiple sources that Balotelli will forfeit a portion of his £90k per week salary to make the deal happen—this after he took a pay cut to £90k to make the move from Milan to Liverpool happen last summer. Milan, meanwhile, won’t be paying all of what’s left.
How much of it they will pay and how much Liverpool will, along with any transfer fee, remains uncertain, at least according to the Liverpool Echo, who claim negotiations at the club level are ongoing despite the fact Balotelli is undergoing his medical. Still, it looks the best option for all involved.
Liverpool will always have known they would have to take a hit financially should their gamble on Balotelli fail to pan out. And it always seemed most likely that it wouldn’t. Now, even after any loan fee and the wages being paid by Milan, they will be subsidizing his season in Italy.
All that remains to be learned is by how much. It is also expected that the loan deal will include a club option for Milan to make the move permanent next summer for a fee in the region of half what Liverpool paid them for him just a year ago.
More photos of @FinallyMario at La Madonnina clinic earlier today: #BentornatoBalotelli #BalotelliRossonero pic.twitter.com/fY7ks0UWK2
— AC Milan News (@Milanello) August 25, 2015
