Manchester City Star tells Balotelli that he needs to stop fooling around.
The young Italian has had nothing but problems since moving to City both on the pitch, and off, again making the news in last weekend’s draw with Sunderland when he argued with his colleague Aleksandar Kolarov.
De Jong admits that Mario is a very talented player but says he has a creative good side, and a destroying bad side. “Sometimes Mario is a fool and at other times he is a genius – there are two sides to him,” he told The Sun.
“Lots of people expect him to pull off crazy stunts and as a result he feels he must do something.
“People like that need to have upheaval in their lives in order to perform.
“He is happy in his personal relationship. That is important and it makes him more focused.
“But he knows that he has to become more serious-minded.”
City boss Roberto Mancini has been said to favour the 21-year-old but De Jong insists Mario would be lost without the manager.
“Luckily, we have a manager who has his say, otherwise Mario would have gone off the rails a long time ago,” he said.
“Problems also seem to come from the people who hang around with him.”
