Italian footballer, Mario Balotelli, has supposedly been captured playing the Italian National Anthem (Il Canto degli Italiani) on a grand piano, while national team-mate Andrea Pirlo looks on.
It’s a pretty ruse, but take a look at the video below and you’ll quickly see that it’s fake. While the guy you can see sitting at the piano may well be Mario, it’s fairly easy to see the frame edits when the camera sweeps behind the white jacket of Andrea, and again on the other side.
Other giveaways include the fact that you never see a full frame of Mario’s head and hands, and whoever Balotelli’s ‘stunt double’ is hasn’t even bothered to zip up his hoodie in the same way.
The badge on the piano reads “Mediaset Premium Academy”, which is Mario’s agency. Speculation is that this is some kind of publicity stunt for a Chinese piano manufacturer, but I think it’s more likely it’s just an ego-stroking exercise for Mario. After all, we can’t see the piano make.
It’s a fun little video, but definitely not genuine.
