Report: Balotelli orders life-size statue

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Mario wants to be like Mike.

In the latest bit of madness from the famously eccentric AC Milan striker, Mario Balotelli reportedly has commissioned a life-size statue of himself from a local sculptor.

According to a report in the Giornale di Brescia, sculptor Livio Scarpella says he has been retained by Balotelli to fashion a statue that in his words, “immortalizes [Mario] in the pose he shows off when he scores.”

The sculpture, to be crafted in painted bronze with precious gems inlaid, also will highlight Balotelli’s muscles and what Scarpella called his “expression of defiance.”

Balotelli is by no means the first athlete to commission artworks of himself — for example, NBA stars Dwight Howard and Blake Griffin currently have commissions in for paintings of themselves by Los Angeles artist Mike Farhat — he may be the first to order a bronze in the mold of the famous Michael Jordan statue that sits outside Chicago’s United Center.

There is no word on whether Balotelli will follow the tradition that surrounds the Jordan statue and drape it in a jersey — or in a T-shirt that reads “Why Always Me.”