| Full name | Kevin-Prince Boateng |
|---|
| Date of birth | 6 March 1987 (1987-03-06) (age 24) |
| Place of birth | Wedding, West Germany |
| Height | 1.87 m (6 ft 1 1⁄2 in) |
| Playing position | Midfielder |
Kevin-Prince Boateng (born 6 March 1987), is a German born
Ghanaian footballer who plays as a
midfielder for
Serie A club
Milan
Boateng is also a member of the
Ghanaian national team, having earned seven caps and scoring one goal.
Club career
A player with dual
German-
Ghanaian (since 2010) nationality, Boateng is a central
midfielder. He has been described as having "skill and pace complemented by advanced tactical awareness and a powerful physique."
[1] He started his career with the youth club
Reinickendorfer Füchse, and then signed for
Hertha BSC.
Hertha BSC
Boateng was with Hertha from 1 July 1994 when he was just seven years old to 31 July 2007. After emerging from the youth team set-up, he played for the reserves for two seasons. He was twice sent off, but he won a call-up to the first team squad in the 2005–06 season. He made his debut against
Eintracht Frankfurt in the second round of the 2005–06
Bundesliga season, being brought on at the start of the second half. He impressed during that game, and was on the fringe of the first team from then on, despite barely being 18 years old. Boateng continued his rise, and started his first Bundesliga game in the 2–2 draw against
Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 14th round of the Bundesliga season.
Boateng identifies
Pelé and
Rivaldo as his role models, occasionally imitating the Brazilian duo with crowd-pleasing moments.
[2] His love of playing to the gallery draws applause, but has also attracted a fair share of criticism too. The Germany Under-19 coach,
Uli Stielike, said about him, "At senior level, Kevin will need to wean himself off the world of fantasy football." He has since cut down on those antics.
On 27 July 2006, Boateng was awarded the
Fritz Walter Gold Medal in the Under-19 category. The medal is awarded on the basis of performances for the German Under-17, Under-18 and Under-19 national teams. A jury consisting of
German Football Association (DFB), youth coaches, and members of the DFB Board, put Boateng top of the poll.
[3] Sport director
Matthias Sammer and DFB coach
Horst Hrubesch honored the talented player with the gold prize winner award and the 20,000 Euro prize-money
[4] at the Stadtbauraum,
Gelsenkirchen in
Germany on 16 August 2006. Boateng also won the
Bronze Medal Award in the Under-18 category in 2005.
Tottenham Hotspur
Boateng signed for Tottenham Hotspur in July 2007, for a reported fee of
£5.4million.
[5][6] He had his first start in the Premier League on 3 November against
Middlesbrough, after which a series of further first team performances followed. With the departure of Tottenham manager
Martin Jol, and the arrival of
Juande Ramos and several high profile players, Boateng was pushed out of the team and into the reserves.
[7] Boateng made his appearance under new manager
Harry Redknapp in Spurs' 4–2 home win against
Liverpool in the fourth round of the
League Cup and his first league appearance of the
2008–09 season in Tottenham's 1–0 home defeat to
Everton in November 2008.
Boateng was loaned out during the January transfer window of 2009 to
Borussia Dortmund for the remainder of the season.
[8] Boateng returned to Tottenham at the end of the 2008–09 season. His last game for Spurs came as a substitute in the clubs 5–1
Football League Cup win over
Doncaster Rovers in August 2009.
[9]
Portsmouth
Boateng joined
Portsmouth for the
2009–10 season, signing a three-year deal with Pompey in August 2009 for a fee believed to be in the region of £4 million.
[10][11] He scored his first Portsmouth goal in a 3–2 loss against
Bolton Wanderers.
[12] He continued his good form over the next few games, playing at the peak of
Paul Hart's
midfield diamond and winning Portsmouth's Player of the Month competition, in September.
[13]
On 15 May 2010, Boateng was the subject of much controversy in the 1–0 defeat to
Chelsea in the
2010 FA Cup Final. In the first half, he committed a foul on
Chelsea player
Michael Ballack,
[14] causing partially torn right
ankle ligaments[15] which ruled the
German captain out of the
2010 FIFA World Cup.
[16] Boateng then had a penalty saved by
Petr Čech in the 54th minute of the game.
[17] Boateng later apologised for the tackle on Ballack saying, "I am sorry, it was not intentional. I just came in too late and made full contact."
[18]
A.C. Milan
Boateng transferred to Italian
Serie A club
Genoa on 17 August 2010, and immediately joined
A.C. Milan on loan.
[19][20] However, as anticipated by Milan CEO
Adriano Galliani, the deal was later switched from loan to
co-ownership.
[21] He played his first competitive
Serie A game for Milan on 29 August 2010 in their 4–0 win against
Lecce after coming on in the 75th minute. On September 15, 2010, Boateng made his debut in the
UEFA Champions League for Milan in their 2–0 win against
AJ Auxerre at the
San Siro, coming on in the 15th minute for
Massimo Ambrosini. Milan coach
Massimiliano Allegri was impressed with his performances in the first two matches so he opted to start him in the next two matches against
Catania and
Lazio.
[22] He has now become a first team regular in the Milan line-up.
He scored his first goal for Milan against
Brescia in the fourth minute to give them a 1–0 lead, game ended with a 3–0 win. His second came on 12 December 2010 against
Bologna when he raced into the penalty box and scored a wonderful volley from a
Zlatan Ibrahimović cross. Boateng netted his third goal in a 3-0 victory over
Napoli on 28 February 2011. He made his return to former club Tottenham on 9 March at
White Hart Lane in the
Champions League last 16 second leg. Having lost 1-0 in the first leg at the
San Siro, Milan were eliminated from the tournament after a goalless draw.On 26th April 2011 he signed a new deal that will keep him at Milan until 2013
International career
The midfielder played 41 times for the German Under-15, Under-16, Under-19 and Under-21 national teams, scoring eight goals. He hit the headlines on 20 July 2005 after netting a 47th minute goal from inside the centre circle over 45 yards in a
2005 UEFA European Under-19 Football Championship game against
Greece, which Germany won 3–0.
[23] This impressive strike was voted
Goal of the Month by viewers of a renowned German TV sports show.
[24] Boateng was offered the chance to play for
Ghana in the
2006 FIFA World Cup, but declined. The Hertha BSC manager,
Dieter Hoeneß, praised Boateng for turning down Ghana and opting to play for
Germany. On 27 March 2007, it was reported in the German media that Boateng had told German coach
Joachim Löw that he would play for Ghana.
On 9 September,
Berliner Morgenpost reported
[27] that German National Under-21 Coach
Dieter Eilts did not select Boateng anymore because of negative incidents that happened in the team's camp during the June 2007 Toulon Tournament in
France.
[28] On 24 June 2009, he announced, due to the lack of future chances to earn a call up for his home country, that he will play for Ghana in the future and that he had hoped to be part of the Ghana national team squad at the
2010 FIFA World Cup. On 7 May 2010, Ghana's head coach
Milovan Rajevac named Boateng in his 30-man squad in preparation for the World Cup in 2010.
[29] On 12 May 2010, FIFA finally approved Boateng's nationality switch application,
[30] clearing the way for him to play for Ghana at the World Cup.
On 5 June 2010, Kevin-Prince, whose birthday coincides with Ghana's
Independence Day, made his debut for Ghana in the 1–0 win over
Latvia.
[32] He wears
Prince as his shirt name, based on his first names Kevin-Prince. This could be to distinguish himself from his brother
Jérôme Boateng and Ghana teammate
Derek Boateng. He also chose to wear number 23, the same number he wore at Portsmouth.
[33] On 23 June 2010, at the 2010 World Cup in
Johannesburg, Boateng played for Ghana against his brother Jérôme, who was representing Germany; the game ending 1–0 to Germany. This was the first time that two brothers have played for opposing teams in an international match and been on the pitch at the same time.
[34] Boateng scored his first goal in a 2–1 win over the
United States in the
Round of 16 in
Rustenburg's
Royal Bafokeng Sports Palace on 26 June
Personal life
Boateng has a German mother and a Ghanaian father. His father, Prince Boateng, left Ghana in 1981 hoping for a break in Germany, where he wanted to study administration, however was unsuccessful and he ended up disc jockeying and working as a waiter. Kevin-Prince was only one-and-a-half-years-old when his father left the family home. Thus his German mother, Catherine, ended up working long hours to take care of Kevin and his brother George. His paternal uncle is a former member of the
Ghana national team and his maternal grandfather is a cousin of legendary German star
Helmut Rahn, scorer of the winning goal in the
1954 FIFA World Cup Final. He has two brothers, George and half-brother
Jérôme.
[36] Both are football players, with the youngest of the three brothers, Jérôme, also having previously been at Hertha and now playing with
Manchester City and the
German national team.
[37] Boateng calls himself "The Ghetto Kid" because he was brought up in the poor
Wedding district of Berlin.
[38] In official documents, his name is given as Kevin Boateng, but he himself prefers the name Kevin-Prince in honour of his father, Prince Boateng. He married his long term girlfriend Jennifer two days after signing for
Tottenham Hotspur.
[39] Boateng has 26
tattoos.
[40] About a tattoo on his biceps, he has been quoted as saying, "Here you see Africa and Ghana from my father", adding, "I have the name of my wife and my home town, Berlin. I have two jokers; one is smiling and the other crying. It means laugh now, cry later."
[41]
Earlier on in his career, Boateng developed a serious
shopping addiction as a result of personal problems. Boateng claims that he still owns "around 200 caps, around 20 leather jackets, and 160 pairs of shoes" following the ordeal. Other things the footballer is known to have bought include a
Lamborghini,
Hummer, and a
Cadillac, all in one day for a six-figure fee. Boateng has since overcome this problem, citing how he, "was broken in another world" due to the effects of it
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