Balotelli completes transfer from Liverpool to Nice on permanent deal

Liverpool have confirmed that Mario Balotelli has completed a permanent transfer to French side Nice.

Nice have signed the striker on a free transfer to end his two-year nightmare stay on Merseyside.

Balotelli was in the south of France on Wednesday for discussions with the Ligue 1 outfit and underwent a medical, one source told ESPN FC.

Liverpool have been trying to find suitors for Balotelli, who had one year remaining on his contract, all summer after Jurgen Klopp made it clear that the misfiring forward would not be part of his plans.

Nice recently had 80 percent of the club bought out by Chinese and American investors, with club president Jean-Pierre Rivere believing the club "will scale new peaks and will continue to grow," due to the injection of new resources.

"We are very happy to welcome Mario," Nice president Jean-Pierre Rivere said. "We hope that at Nice, in a family atmosphere, he'll rediscover his enjoyment of the game.

"We know, him and us, that nothing will be easy but with desire and, I hope, the support of all our fans, we'll enable him to blossom and to bring all his talent to the service of the team.

"We're still a club under construction. Our progression is being carried out step by step. We [hope] to have a good season with our squad in all the different competitions that we will have to contend with."

Balotelli joined Liverpool in the summer of 2014, with then-manager Brendan Rodgers even labelling the move a "gamble".

He scored one goal in the Premier League for Liverpool before he was shipped out on loan to AC Milan last season.

Balotelli returned to Merseyside from his spell in Italy this summer for preseason training, but was left behind as the team toured the United States and did not appear in any of the nine friendlies.