Mario Balotelli suffered from racial discrimination when he was aged just five years old, his former club president has revealed.
The 21-year-old Manchester City star, who was sent off during his team's 1-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday, was adopted by his Italian parents when he was three.
Mauro Tomolini, who ran the USO Mompiano team in Brescia, told The Mirror how parents of the other children tried to have him removed from the team.
"When he came here aged five," he said. "He was the only black child out of 250. The parents of the others looked at him differently.
"People asked us to get him out of the team."
Balotelli has come under fire for his behaviour on and off the field since his £20m move from Inter Milan in 2010.
