It's easy to knock Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney, but he hasn't wasted his talent like Mario Balotelli

Football Matters: The England captain has been on the end of a lot of criticism lately, but he will at least be able to look back on his career without regret, unlike a certain Italian striker

Balotelli could not be helped despite Liverpool's best efforts (Getty)

It is difficult to comprehend that Mario Balotelli is now 26-years-old. Such has been the Italian forward’s career to date, it is easy to assume that he is still that youngster with the odd problem to iron out before he becomes a real footballer.

Just ask yourself the question of what defines Balotelli’s career - what is the image that immediately springs to mind?

It should be the stunning two-goal performance for Italy against Germany in Warsaw at Euro 2012, when he showcased the pace, strength and dead-eye finishing which made him one of the brightest prospects in world football as a teenager at Inter Milan.

But the sad reality is that that performance probably does not make the top ten of Balotelli’s most memorable moments.

Setting fire to his bathroom the night before a Manchester derby, the ridiculous camouflaged Bentley, the ‘Why Always Me’ T-shirt, the repeated episodes of smoking, the training ground punch-ups, the daft hats and now the Twitter rows with Jamie Carragher.

There are countless more episodes of Balotelli the ‘character’ rather than Balotelli the footballer to digest, but as he prepares to make his debut for Nice against Marseille this weekend, it is unlikely that he will spend one minute considering his wasted career and unfulfilled potential.

In a week when Wayne Rooney has become the punch-bag for England supporters bemoaning the Manchester United captain’s transition from goalscoring centre-forward to deep-lying midfielder, it is worth considering how the England captain has navigated the difficult path from teenage prodigy to senior statesman and achieved quite a bit along the way.

Rooney, 31 next month, will eventually end his playing career to accusations that he failed to live up to the hype which surrounded him as a 16-year-old at Everton, but when his career his placed alongside that of Balotelli, he has done everything, and more, than what was expected of him.

England’s all-time record goalscorer - and soon to be United’s - a Champions League winner, five Premier League titles and winners’ medals in the FA Cup, League Cup and Fifa Club World Cup, Rooney has done enough to ensure that his off-field indiscretions and on-field disciplinary issues will be glossed over by what he has achieved with his boots on.

Rooney is facing questions over his role for club and country (Getty)

But Balotelli is destined to be remembered as a player more famous for his stupidity and childishness than the brilliance he is, or maybe was, genuinely capable of.

Heaven help Nice. With the temptations of Monte Carlo just 20 minutes down the Cote d’Azur, it is clearly only a matter of time before the first paparazzi shots of Mario boarding a party yacht emerge.

Liverpool were given a gentle warning by senior figures at Manchester City two years ago that they were investing in nothing but trouble when Balotelli arrived on Merseyside in a £16m transfer from AC Milan.

The response from one celebrated figure at Anfield, when this was suggested in the boardroom at the Etihad Stadium, was that Liverpool’s unique spirit would ensure Balotelli be given the protection and platform that he was denied at City, where Robert Mancini’s indulgence of the player led to him spectacularly veering off the rails and losing the respect of his team-mates.

Brendan Rodgers, who held a three-hour meeting with Balotelli in his office at Liverpool’s Melwood training ground before sanctioning the deal, insisted he had ‘done a really smart piece of business which represents outstanding value for the club,’ before going on to describe the move as a ‘calculated risk.’

By that stage, Antonio Conte had already decided that Balotelli would play no part in his Italy team and the majority of the football world wondered what on Earth Liverpool were doing.

But Liverpool bent over backwards to help Balotelli settle and focus.

The club found him a house in Formby, far enough away from his old haunts in Manchester, and even assigned to him a member of the club’s security team to act as his driver, who would guarantee his on-time arrival at training and for matches.

None of it worked, however, and by the time Liverpool faced Basel in the Champions League in early October, just five weeks after Balotelli’s arrival at the club, Steven Gerrard had given up on him.

“Balotelli started the game and he was hopeless,” Gerrard wrote in his autobiography, My Story. “In training, his demeanour was poor and I made up my mind about him pretty quickly.

“Jose Mourinho was right when he said he was unmanageable. You are always fighting a losing battle with Balotelli because he does too many things wrong.”

Nice have given Balotelli a shot at redemption, the opportunity to prove Gerrard wrong and build the ammunition to hit back at Carragher once again.

And Liverpool, who offloaded Balotelli on a free transfer rather than pay up the final 12 months of his £75,000-a-week contract, have wisely - or optimistically - inserted a 30 per cent sell-on clause in the deal, just in case he becomes Super Mario once again.

But he obviously won’t. Unlike Rooney, Balotelli has never had the hunger or determination to silence his critics or confound the doubters and there is no chance of him changing now.

Stones best suited to be Rooney's deputy

England manager Sam Allardyce admitted after the 1-0 victory over Slovakia that he had ‘forgotten’ to name a vice-captain when choosing to retain Wayne Rooney in the captaincy role.

Vice-captain is an insignificant role in the grand scheme of things, but Allardyce could make it a key position and set out a signpost for the future if he is prepared to be bold when selecting Rooney’s deputy.

At 22, and with maturity beyond his years, John Stones would be an obvious candidate to succeed Rooney after the next World Cup, so Allardyce should make him vice-captain now and allow the Manchester City defender to grow with the added responsibility.

Macheda's bright start burns out

If ever there was a case of a player hitting his peak too soon, that fate surely applies to Federico Macheda.

When you score a crucial goal for Manchester United with the first touch of your senior career as a 17-year-old, topping that is always going to be difficult.

And so it has proved, with Macheda, now 25, looking for a new club after having his contract cancelled by mutual consent by Cardiff City last week.