Football
Ben Gladwell, Italy correspondent 9y

Mario Balotelli was 'very close' to Liverpool exit, claims Parma president

Parma were "very close" to signing Mario Balotelli this winter, according to the Serie A club's new president Ermir Kodra.

Kodra, 29, was revealed as Parma's new president earlier this week following a takeover by a Russian-Cypriot consortium this winter.

Having now revealed his identity to Parma fans, the Albanian businessman has now gone even further by suggesting he was about to gift them Balotelli.

"We have signed some valuable players and our aim is to find even more top players," he told Albanian channel Supersport, reports La Gazzetta dello Sport. "We were very close to Mario Balotelli, but we were unable to conclude the deal.

"But our sporting director Pietro Leonardi is working hard on getting us the attacker we need."

Parma currently prop up the rest of Serie A with just three wins from their first 19 games of the season. They have also been deducted one point for financial irregularities and a further two points are set to be docked in the coming months.

They are nine points from safety and it is not clear whether Balotelli turned down their offer or whether their bid was not accepted by Liverpool, but Kodra remains convinced he will be able to lead the 1999 UEFA Cup winners into calmer waters.

"Parma's financial situation is pretty difficult, but we have a strategy which concerns both the economic side and the sporting side of things," Kodra added. "We're convinced that, with this strategy, we will obtain the desired result.

"We're working with all of our efforts on saving the club and to strengthen it with a great attacker, who can help us resolve our problems. It's difficult, but not impossible."

Parma will present their two new winter signings Silvestre Varela and Cristian Rodriguez on Friday, but they may not be the last new arrivals before the transfer window closes at the start of February.

The Gialloblu host Cesena at the weekend before travelling to coach Roberto Donadoni's former club AC Milan a week later.

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