Mario Balotelli is one of the most enigmatic characters to ever grace the Premier League.

Balotelli's infamous Man City spell

The stories about Balotelli's bewildering behaviour during his Manchester City spell range from the chaos of igniting fireworks in his own bathroom to amassing enough parking fines to last a lifetime.

As a result, despite seeing his career lose pace since leaving Marseille in 2019, the former Italy international is still bounded about in conversations across pubs in England on a weekly basis.

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And one of the countless bizarre incidents that can be attributed to Balotelli across his time in the Premier League took place exactly 10 years ago to the day.

That's because Balotelli made headlines around the world for an outrageous moment during City's pre-season friendly with LA Galaxy that saw him hooked off by Roberto Mancini mere seconds later.

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Balotelli's infamous 'showboating'

Ringing any bells? Well, it should be because Balotelli made international headlines for the head-scratching moment where he decided to take a one-on-one opportunity with a roulette-like shot.

The infamous skill saw the ball sorrily dribble wide and created a tense atmosphere at Dignity Health Sports Park with fans booing and Edin Dzeko instantly taking issue with his teammate.

Balotelli quickly became the centre of attention for what many perceived to be an outrageous bout of unprofessionalism, prompting Mancini to haul him back on to the bench as a direct consequence.

According to the Independent, Mancini explained the decision by remarking: "Football should always be serious and if you have a chance to score, you should score."

And even an entire decade down the line, you can rest assured that the footage still makes for a hilariously surreal watch, so be sure to reminisce on Balotelli's bizarre shot down below:

Now, given all that we know about Balotelli's penchant for the outrageous, you'd feel pretty safe in the assumption that he was taking the mickey out of LA Galaxy because it was a friendly... right?

Did Balotelli think he was offside?

Well, that's not necessarily the case because Balotelli's former City teammate Micah Richards explained last year that the Italian went for a roulette-like skill because he thought he was offside.

Richards recalled during a conversation with Goal: "I asked Mario about it and he said: 'I'm telling you now. I heard a whistle'.

"Even if he did hear a whistle or not, we were like: 'Just score anyway'. But he was adamant that he heard a whistle so he stopped. 

"But you never know with Mario because it fitted in with the rest of his antics. But I prefer the story that he was trying to take the mickey, it's a better story."

Take from that what you will because although Richards explains that Balotelli blamed an apparent offside, even he wasn't 100% convinced that his former teammate was telling the truth.

We'll let you decide whether Balotelli thought that he'd heard an errand whistle or was trying to embarrass his pre-season opponents but either way, it still makes for a hilarious watch every time...