The Chelsea manager says the 23-year-old striker has great potential and insists that he enjoyed his time working with him during his stint in Italy
Jose Mourinho believes there is much more to come from AC Milan front man Mario Balotelli, whom he coached during his time at Inter.
The Chelsea boss had several clashes with the Italian striker when they worked together at the Nerazzurri.
But despite their arguments during their spells with the Serie A side, the 51-year-old says he enjoyed working with the former Manchester City forward and insists the player’s attitude problem was natural for someone of his age,
“It was great fun,” he told Yahoo. “I always thought that was great fun and I have good memories of that.
“Obviously with a kid like him, maybe now he is a bit different but at that time you have your ups and downs and we had our ups and downs but at the end of the day I enjoyed it; I think he enjoyed too.
“He learned a few things – or not – but he enjoyed too and he won: he was a Champions League winner at 18-years-old.”
The former Real Madrid boss admits he doesn’t think he will work with Balotelli again in the future but praised the 23-year-old and added he still has a lot of potential and room to grow as a player.
“In football you never know the future but I think at this moment he is with a big club, Milan. I suppose that they want to keep the best players and they want to keep the best Italian players.
“He was already in English football. For sure I am not going to be his manager at Milan or at the Italian national team so I don’t think there is any situation in the future but he’s a good guy, he’s a good kid.
“He is a very young player, he’s very young. He started so young that maybe people now maybe think Balotelli is 27 or 28 but he’s not 27 or 28.
“He was playing in the Champions League when he was 17, 18 and he come to City when he was 19, 20. He’s a kid, he’s still a very young kid.
“I think the best years of a playing career are between 27 and 31 – so he’s not there, but hopefully he goes in the right direction.”