Balotelli admits to Prandelli that he needs help

You may not have thought it possible, but it seems Mario Balotelli has realized that he is prone to astonishingly dumb behavior. First, he issued a public apology for the high boot on Goran Popov that got him sent off in the second leg of Manchester City's doomed Europa League tie against Dynamo Kiev last week. And now, after getting left off the Italian national team squad for their upcoming friendlies due to that violation of their code of ethics, he's admitted to national team manager Cesare Prandelli that he has a problem.

From Football Italia:

"I have heard from Balotelli," said Prandelli. "He understands that he made a fool of himself.

"He said to me: 'I need help. I always ruin everything but I care a lot about the national team.'

Maybe it was Roberto Mancini calling him stupid. Maybe it was his epic struggle to put on a bib. Who knows what made Mario realize he's hit rock bottom. This is the first step to eradicating his ill-advised outbursts, though. And for that we should all be a little bit sad. Who will be caught trespassing at women's prisons now? Who? Who.