'Still working hard with reserve team. Top quality session today with top players. #respect,' he wrote on Instagram.
Gone were the theatrics, the posturing and petulance. It was as acute a moment of retrospective reflection as we're likely to see from a man who can slide effortlessly between brilliant and baffling.
Perhaps, as the £90,000-per-week striker posed for the photo alongside teenagers who don't yet know what it is to have everything, the reality of the situation dawned on him. Continue
The Reds' teenagers in the picture shared by Mario Balotelli are (left to right): Paulo Alves (midfielder, 18 years old), Ben Williams (goalkeeper), Kamil Grabara (goalkeeper, 17), Ben Woodburn (forward, 16), Bradley Garton (midfielder, 18), Harry Wilson (midfielder, 19), Andrew Firth (goalkeeper, 19), Tom Drewitt (defender, 19), Kane Lewis (defender, 18), Corey Whelan (defender, 18), Toni Gomes (forward, 17), Joe Maguire (defender, 20)
The kids who sat with Balotelli must aspire to be exactly what the striker once was - a pin-up of the global game, blessed with prodigious talent, set on a collision course with superstardom.
This was the man they watched fire Italy into the Euro 2012 final four years ago, after all, while on Sunday the Liverpool youngsters visited Rhyl for a pre-season friendly.
But Balotelli's story has changed immeasurably since that tournament in Poland and Ukraine.
He has been told he is surplus to requirements at Anfield - little surprise given a contribution of four goals across two years at the equivalent of £4million apiece - but few sides want to meet the wage demands of a man whose reputation precedes him.
'The talent is still there,' said Klopp, when asked about Balotelli's future. 'When we have done the crossing, heading and stuff he's been world class.
'But this is not a situation where he should be battling with other players like this for one position.'
And so, while the rest of his first-team colleagues are signing autographs for fans in America's Golden State, the Italian has been left at home to get fit, stay fit and look for a new club.
How easy that will be for Balotelli is another matter entirely.
It's easy to forget that he's just 25 years old given the library of anecdotes - both sublime and ridiculous - which have littered his travels from Milan to Liverpool via a lengthy stopover in Manchester.
Mario somehow found himself in the pictures of Liverpool fans wedding Vicky and David O'Leary on Sunday.
Source: Dailymail
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