Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Soccer Star Mario Balotelli Sorry for Anti-Semitic Instagram Post

British soccer player Mario Balotelli, who grew up the foster son of a Jewish mother, apologized for a racist and anti-Semitic post on his Instagram page.

Balotelli apologized on Tuesday on Twitter for the post, which features a photo of Nintendo computer game character Super Mario and reads, in part, that the character “jumps like a Black man and grabs coins like a Jew.”

Balotelli, 24, the son of immigrants from Ghana, who plays for the Liverpool soccer team, is nicknamed Super Mario.

The player also was notified that he is being investigated by Britain’s Football Association, under the governing body’s strict anti-racism rules. He has until Friday to offer his explanation of the use of the post.

Balotelli’s apology tweeted Tuesday said, in part: “I apologize if I’ve offended anyone. The post was meant to be anti-racist with humor. I now understand that out of context it may have the opposite effect.

The rest of the Super Mario post reads: “Don’t be racist. Be like Mario. He’s an Italian plumber, created by Japanese people, who speaks English and looks like a Mexican.”

On Monday, following criticism of the post, Balotelli responded with a tweet that said: “My Mom is jewish so all of u shut up please,”

Jewish leaders in Britain criticized the Super Mario post as anti-Semitic and racist.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.