New Nice coach Patrick Vieira has said that Mario Balotelli wants to leave the club. Les Aiglons president Jean-Pierre Rivère confirmed that Marseille submitted a bid for the player that fell short of what Nice are looking for.
Vieira, speaking after suffering an opening weekend loss to promoted Reims, said: "The player wants to leave and that makes things very difficult. What's important for me and the club is to keep the players who want to help the club progress. From the moment Mario decides he wants to leave then it's down to the club to do what's necessary to enable him to go."
The 27-year-old Italian international has scored 33 goals in 51 appearances at Nice. Rivère commented: "I have no news from Marseille and I don't know what they want to do. They submitted an offer that was… well, I'll talk about the numbers at another time and you'll realize why we weren't able to reach an agreement based on those numbers."
