Mario Balotelli urges Mamadou Sakho to leave Liverpool
Monday 7 November 2016 08:26, UK
Mario Balotelli has urged his former Liverpool team-mate Mamadou Sakho to leave Anfield in the upcoming January transfer window.
Sakho is yet to feature for Liverpool this season, having been frozen out of the first-team squad by manager Jurgen Klopp after being sent home early from the club's pre-season tour of the United States.
The France international turned down the chance to join Stoke before the close of the summer transfer window, despite Klopp suggesting a move away from Merseyside would be the best solution for both club and player.
Balotelli, who ended his nightmare spell at Liverpool in the summer, believes Sakho must leave the Reds in the new year and suggested the 26-year-old should join him at French club Nice.
"I speak with him from time to time. I said to him: 'What a waste a player like you is not playing'," the Italian said.
"He has to leave. I said to him: 'If you want, come to Nice.' I am going to speak to him about it. In January, it would be good."
Sakho was suspended in April after failing a drug test and, though the results were later quashed, he missed Euro 2016, which was hosted in his homeland.
France head coach Didier Deschamps, like Balotelli, feels Sakho must look to exit Liverpool in the next transfer window.
Deschamps said: "There has to be another solution for him to find another club in the January window."
