Mario Balotelli leaves shopping mall after refusing to take off hood

London, Mar 7 (ANI): Mario Balotelli was asked to remove his hood at a shopping mall as he was breaking the rules by hiding his face from the CCTV cameras.

However, the controversial Manchester City striker chose to leave the Trafford Centre rather than risk being recognised.

Balotelli, 21, was trying to keep a low profile after being photographed outside a Liverpool strip club in the early hours of Friday morning, earning a rebuke from manager Roberto Mancini and a 250,000-pound fine.

The Trafford Centre's strict "no hood" policy was explained to him first in English and then his native Italian before he left on amicable terms, joking with staff that he will return in disguise next time.

"The gentleman decided that rather than take down his hood, he would prefer to leave the centre," the Daily Mail quoted the mall as saying.

"He was polite and friendly throughout the encounter.

"The customer, who is believed to be a regular visitor to the Trafford Centre, then shook hands with our security staff and departed for his car," they said.

Mancini had suggested in the wake of Balotelli's misdemeanour in Liverpool that the 21-year-old footie star should marry his glamorous girlfriend Raffaella Fico and settle down, and the player had revealed that he is open to the idea.

"For me, it is not too soon to get married," he told Gazzetta dello Sport.

"When you find the right person, it can be the right time.

"Raffaella is the best thing that has ever happened to me. She gives me serenity and understands when I do things," he added.

Balotelli also admitted that being fined two weeks' wages was not his biggest regret for visiting the strip club.

"If she went with her friends to a club of male strippers, I would be very angry.

"I didn't do anything wrong. But if you really love a woman, you should spare her that. This was the first mistake. The second was to go two days before a game," he said.

However, Fico immediately calmed talk of marriage and even gave Balotelli her blessing to visit strip clubs.

"It is too soon to get married, we are still very young," the 24-year-old model said.

"He doesn't do things maliciously, but when you are young you do certain things without stopping to think whether they are right or wrong.

"For me, he can go to a strip club if he does nothing wrong, with friends, but I have to say that he always comes back to me, his favourite," she said. (ANI)