Mario Balotelli removed from Liverpool Player of the Year vote - then returns with his name spelt 'Ballotelli'

Balotelli was in line to win the vote after fans from rival clubs hijacked to free-to-all vote

Mario Balotelli reacts to defeat to Aston Villa (Getty Images)

After fans of Manchester United and Arsenal (and probably more given the recent coverage) hijacked Liverpool's Fans' Player of the Year award, the club have responded by removing the Mario Balotelli from the available options.

Despite playing 26 times this season and scoring four goals along the way, Liverpool supporters can no longer vote for Balotelli for the end of season awards.

Yet they can vote for the likes of Jon Flanagan and Danny Ward – neither of which have played a minute this season - and you can see for yourself here.

The move comes after fans of rival clubs flooded the website poll with votes for Balotelli, which had him on course to win the end-of-season award as the Reds’ best player this season. His future at the club is clouded in uncertainty with the expectation that he will be offloaded in the summer, having failed to justify his £16m transfer fee last summer.

Liverpool's Player of the Year vote no longer contains Mario Balotelli (liverpoolfc.com)

Balotelli should have been the FA Cup saviour when he scored in Sunday’s semi-final against Aston Villa, only to have his goal incorrectly ruled out for offside and Liverpool to slump to a 2-1 defeat to crash out of the sole remaining competition that they could win.

The 24-year-old famously wore a T-shirt underneath his kit during his time with Manchester City that read ‘Why Always Me?’ on the front, which he displayed after scoring against Manchester United in 2011.

Balotelli's famous T-shirt during his Manchester City days (Getty Images)

Once again, he’ll be asking himself the same question after this deeply unfair decision: why always me?

*UPDATE*

Following the revelations that Balotelli had been removed from the poll, Liverpool have reinstated the striker to the available options, as you can see below.

Mario Balotelli's name returns to the Player of the Year list (liverpool.co.uk)

However, upon his initial return, the error was made worse when his name was spelt incorrectly with 'Mario Ballotelli' appearing at the bottom of the list, as noticed by Bleacher Report.

Bleacher Report point out that Balotelli's name is spelt incorrectly (Twitter)

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