Boateng, Kevin Prince

Boateng was born and raised in Berlin's poorest ^[8] and criminal area, Wedding ^[9] . Kevin’s mother, Kristina Ran ^{[10] is} German , and her father was from Ghana ^[11] . Boateng has an older brother, George ^[8] , as well as a half-brother, Jerome Boateng , who is also a footballer. The father left the family when Kevin was very young, and his elder brother George went to prison, so the upbringing of the youngest son was completely on his mother ^[8] . Subsequently, Kevin talked about his childhood like this: “I grew up in Berlin, it was an unsweetened life, it was very difficult. The people I spoke with were gypsies , Arabs , Russians , Croats , Romanians , Albanians — a dozen people. Often fought, clashed. I had two options: either to become a criminal, or try to be a soccer player. I chose the second option, and I succeeded ” ^[12] .

Kevin-Prince began his career in the children's team in 1994, when he was six years old. At the age of seven, Prince Jr. defeated another rival in the courtyard, and he told his father about him, who turned out to be the coach of the Hertha children's team ^[8] .

Hertha

At the age of seven, Kevin ended up at the Hertha Academy in Berlin. After studying at the academy, at the age of 17 Kevin became a player of the , and two years later - the main team ^{[8] [13]} .

On August 13, 2005, at the Kevin-Prince Olympic Stadium, Boateng made his debut for the main team of Hertha, in the second round match of the Bundesliga 2005/2006 against Eintracht (2-0), coming on as a substitute at the beginning of the second half ^[14] . The first match in the starting lineup, Prince Jr. played in the fourteenth round, against Borussia (Mönchengladbach) (2: 2). In 2005, Kevin was awarded the Fritz Walter Bronze Medal in the category of players under 18 years old ^[15] . On August 16, 2006, Boateng received the Fritz Walter Gold Medal in the U19 category of players ^[15] .

Tottenham Hotspur and Borussia Dortmund

On July 31, 2007, Kevin-Prince joined the Tottenham Hotspur club for £ 5.4 million after 13 years in the Hertha structures, signing a 4-year contract ^[16] . On November 3, 2007, Boateng made his debut in the English Premier League in the match of the 12th round of the 2007/2008 season against Middlesbrough (1: 1). In total for the season, Kevin spent 21 matches in all spurs tournaments. This result was a consequence of the fact that the head coach of the team, Martin Yol, believed that “he did not need Boateng” ^{[8] [17]} .

After an unsuccessful start in the 2008/2009 season, Yol was dismissed, and Juande Ramos , who also did not see the Ghana in the lineup, became the new coach. In the first half of the season, Kevin spent only 14 minutes ^[17] . In January 2019, Boateng was sent to Borussia (Dortmund) for rent before the end of the season ^{[17] [18]} . In Germany, Prince Jr. played 11 matches in half the season in all tournaments, scoring 2 assists, but was forced to miss the last two matches of the season due to a red card suspension received in the game of the 32nd round of the German championship with Wolfsburg (0 : 3), shown for hitting the face of Makoto Haseba ^{[19] [20]} . The Dortmundians were ready to sign Boateng on an ongoing basis, but financial constraints prevented them from doing so ^{[19] [21] [22]} .

Portsmouth

In August 2009, Portsmouth transferred to English for 4 million pounds, signing a three-year contract ^{[23] [24]} . On September 12, 2009, Boateng made his debut for Portsmouth in the 5th round match of the 2009/2010 season against Bolton Wanderers (2: 3) ^[25] , in this match Kevin scored his first goal for the new team. In September, Boateng was voted Portsmouth's best player. ^[26] May 15, 2010 at Wembley Stadium Portsmouth played in the FA Cup final against Chelsea . During the match, Boateng fouled on the Chelsea midfielder Michael Ballack , injuring his ankle ^[27] , and therefore the captain of the German national team did not go to the World Cup in South Africa ^[27] . The match ended 1-0 in favor of Chelsea. After the match, Boateng claimed that Ballack hit him in the face during the match ^[28] , and according to Kevin, “I apologized twice to Ballack on the field. I am very sorry and assure that I did not do this on purpose ” ^{[29] [30] [31] [32] [33]} . Prince Jr. accused the German media and players of the German national team of hypocrisy for supporting Ballack, but ignoring Michael's blow to the face ^[34] . Boateng also criticized head coach of the German national team Joachim Löw for defending Ballack after hitting striker Lucas Podolski in a training match for the German national team ^[34] . Boateng played 28 matches in all tournaments during the season, marking 5 goals and 4 assists.

Milan

On August 14, 2010, Kevin-Prince transferred to the Italian Genoa for 5.7 million euros, signing a four-year contract with the Genoese , but on August 18 he transferred to Milan on a leasehold basis with the right to redeem ^{[35] [36] [37 ] ]} . Before the 2010/2011 season, Massimiliano Allegri , who had previously trained Cagliari , became the head coach of Milan. At the same time, the club has seriously strengthened in the offseason, in addition to Boateng, Robinho from Manchester City and Zlatan Ibrahimovic from Barcelona came to the team. Boateng made his debut for AC Milan in the 1st round match of the 2010/2011 season against Lecce (4-0), replacing Alexandre Pato in the 76th minute. December 4, 2010 in the match of the 15th round against Brescia (3-0) scored his first goal for the red-blacks. From the very beginning of the season, Milan began to win, indicating a serious struggle for the Scudetto . On May 7, 2011, after a draw with Roma two rounds before the end of the championship, Milan won the first Scudetto in the last 7 years ^{[38] [39]} . In the winning season of Serie A, Kevin played 26 matches, noting 3 goals and 2 assists, for the whole season Boateng played 34 matches in all tournaments.

On August 30, 2013, Boateng transferred to Schalke 04 for 12 million euros, signing a contract for three years with the possibility of extension for another year ^[40] . He made his debut for a new club in a match with Bayer , which ended 2-0 in favor of Schalke. He scored the first goal in the match with Mainz . In May 2015, he was removed from the first team, and in December 2015 he terminated the contract with Schalke ^[41] .

In January 2016, he entered into a six-month contract with Milan, with which he trained since October 2015 ^[42] . On January 17, in the home game against Fiorentina (2-0) he came on as a substitute in the 79th minute and opened the score for his goals in the second match for the Rossoneri after his return. For the six months spent in the “Milan”, Boateng only once left in the starting lineup of the team. In May 2016, it was announced that the footballer was leaving Milan ^[43] .

Las Palmas

In the summer of that year, Boateng signed a one-year contract with the Spanish club Las Palmas ^[44] . In the 2016/2017 season, the footballer played 28 matches and scored 10 goals in the Spanish Championship . In May 2017, Boateng signed a new three-year contract with the club, but on August 16 he agreed to terminate it, citing personal reasons ^[43] . On August 18, he entered into a free agent status with Eintracht from Frankfurt am Main for a three-year contract ^[45] .

Sassuolo

In the summer, as a free agent, he moved to Sassuolo , where he played 13 matches and scored 4 goals. In the winter of 2019, he was sent for rent to the Catalan Barcelona .

Barcelona

He made his debut for Barcelona on 01/23/2019, leaving the main squad for the match 1/4 of the Spanish Cup against Sevilla . The match ended with the score 0: 2 in favor of Sevilla ^[46] .

Boateng was called up several times in the German national teams until 15, 16, 17, 17, 19, 20, and 21, after reaching the media on July 20, 2005, scoring a goal from the central circle from 45 meters in the 47th minute of the match with Greece at the European Championship (U19) ^[47] . The match ended with the victory of the Germans 3-0. German media reported that Boateng told German coach Joachim Löw about his intention to play for the Ghana national team ^{[48] [49]} .

On September 9, 2007, Berliner Morgenpost announced ^[50] that the German coach no longer intends to call Boateng until the age of 21 due to the player’s misconduct at the Toulon tournament in France in June 2007 ^[51] .

In 2010, Boateng decided to play for the national team of Ghana , the homeland of his father. His uncle also played for the Ghana national team. As part of the Ghanaian national team, Boateng participated in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, where he played against his brother Jerome, who played for the German national team. There he scored a goal against the US team , thanks to which Ghana came out in 1/4 of the tournament ^[52] .

In November 2011, 18 months after he started playing for the Ghana national team, Boateng announced that he was leaving the national team. The 24-year-old football player, who managed to play 9 matches in the form of the Ghanaian team and score one goal, referred to health problems due to the need to play both for the club and the national team, and also noted that trips to the national team’s matches interfere with his special training regimen ^[53] .

Boateng later returned to the Ghana national team to compete in the 2014 World Cup . According to the football player, a representative of the Ghanaian football association flew to him in Milan and persuaded him to return to the national team, promising to improve the conditions for the flight of the team and the organization of fees. Boateng noted that these promises were broken, in particular, the team flew to Brazil 12 hours in close economy class. At the World Championships, Kevin-Prince performed after playing two starting matches of the group tournament, but before the third match he was expelled from the team for insulting the coach of the national team James Appia. ^[54] After that, Boateng was no longer called to the national team, although in 2016 he announced that he would like to take part in the 2018 World Cup with the Ghanaian team ^[55] .

• There are 25 tattoos on the player’s body ^[56] .
• According to his mother, his grandfather is a cousin of the legendary German player Helmut Rahn , who scored a winning goal at the World Cup in 1954 . ^[57]
• Jerome Boateng’s stepbrother is also a professional footballer who now plays for Bayern Munich and Germany’s national team ^[8] .
• Married to journalist and television presenter Melissa Satta . April 15, 2014 they had a son, Maddox-Prince.

Club statistics

As of January 23, 2019

Team stats

As of June 21, 2014 ^[58]

Ghana matches and goals

Total: 15 matches / 2 goals; 6 wins, 3 draws, 6 losses.

Team

"Milan"

• Champion of Italy : 2010/2011
• Super Bowl Italy : 2011

Eintracht

• German Cup Winner: 2017/18

Barcelona

• Champion of Spain : 2018/19

Personal

• Fritz Walter Medal : Bronze 2005 (Category under 18) ^[13]
• Fritz Walter Medal : Gold 2006 (Category U19) ^[13]
• Das Erste : 2005 ^[13]
• Team of the Year (Series A) : 2010/2011 ^[59]