Balotelli Attacks His Ghanaian Parents

Inter Milan striker Mario Balotelli has launched a stinging attack on his Ghanaian biological parents, accusing them of only wanting to know him now because of the fame and money he is earning as a professional footballer. The 18-year-old, who is one of Serie A's most exciting new talents, was born in Palermo to Thomas and Rose Barwuah. However, Mario was put up for adoption - a notion denied by his biological parents - and at the age of three was legally entrusted to the Italian-Jewish Balotelli family.

Recently, his birth parents appeared in newspapers stating their sadness at being unable to play a part in Balotelli's life but their version of events has infuriated the talented youngster. "They have talked of two people forced to give their child up for adoption due to poverty," the young forward wrote on his personal website.

"This is false because nobody forced them to leave me at the hospital as a newborn baby and to disappear in the years that followed. "I have been a foster child in the Balotelli family since the age of two and every two years I have had to renew that agreement in court. "Why is that? Because the Barwuahs, who are pictured in the newspapers with a photo of me in an Inter shirt looking sad, never asked to have me back.

"For 16 years I didn't even receive a phone call on my birthday, but now they make contact after I have become a Serie A footballer. "There is no bond between us and in my eyes they are just strangers," Balotelli concluded.

While Balotelli seems to have made up his mind, his Ghanaian parents have consistently denied that version insisting that the allegations have been trumped up by the foster family. Rose Barwuah told Ghanasoccernet last year that Mario was not abandoned but was recommended for fostering and not adoption when social workers found their poor living condition as new immigrants in Italy. Mrs. Barwuah concluded that Mario was too young to understand what had happened and believes her son has been brain-washed.