Lunatic or legend? Cult heroes

Super Mario. Italian. Hero complex. Comedy hat. Is that where the similarity ends? To Inter fans, he was the archetypal cult hero - goalscorer, prodigy, absent-minded, enigma. He was filmed on Italian TV wearing an AC Milan shirt, and seemed to make a career out of winding up his managers.

Mario models the latest MCFC headgear

At what point does he become more? His big money move to Manchester City in 2010 has seen him perhaps become a more prolific goalscorer, but he seems to becoming more famous for his other antics. The fireworks in the bathroom. Throwing darts at colleagues. Donating £1000 to a homeless man.

After his recent red card at Anfield, Roberto Mancini said that Mario maybe left out of future big games, but he stepped up to score the opener against Chelsea. Is the tide turning? Or is Balotelli just building up to the next big boo-boo?

Other players throughout the game have trod that fine line, and can fall either side. Even in just England - Gascoigne, Best, Cantona. Capable of the stupid and the sublime.

 Gascoigne - ultimate English cult hero

The game wouldn't be the front page, mass entertainment spectacle is it without these, and a world where Michael Owen, Alan Shearer and a pre-Walkers Gary Lineker were the extroverts would be a strange place indeed.

Hopefully the non-harmful antics of Balotelli, the Twitterings of Frimpong, the cars (if not the personality) of Diouf will carry on entertaining. And if not, you can always rely on Eboue dressed in a tiger suit.

The endangered Eboue, last seen in Turkey

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