Bizarre £1m bonus clause revealed in Balotelli’s Liverpool contract

Mario Balotelli’s Liverpool contract had a bizarre £1million clause written into it, according to a new book.

The book Football Leaks: The Dirty Business of Football has revealed the contracts of several high profile stars and Balotelli, who moved from AC Milan to Liverpool for £17million in August 2014, has had the finer points of his deal published.

The Nice forward, who is out of contract this summer, apparently had a clause in his contract which included a £1million bonus for not getting sent off three times in a season.

It read: “If during each season of the term of this contract the player is not dismissed from the field of play on three or more occasions for violent conduct, spitting, for using offensive, insulting or abusive language and/or gestures and/or for dissent … then on the June 30 at the end of each season he shall receive a bonus payment of £1 million.”

And the 26-year-old, who left Liverpool on a free to join Nice last summer, banked the £1million after managing to avoid a red card in 2014/15.

It’s presumed Balotelli did not have a similar clause written into his deal in Ligue 1 as he has been sent off three times this term.