English Premier League - Player Profile: Kevin Prince Boateng
Kevin Prince Boateng is a German born, Ghanaian international footballer who currently plays for Portsmouth as an offensive midfielder. Kevin was born on the 6th of March, 1987 in Berlin Wedding, he choose to play for the Ghanaian national team despite having a German nationality. The talented youngster also played for Ghana in the recently concluded FIFA 2010 World Cup.
Kevin started his football career with the youth club Reinickendorer Fuchse but signed for Hertha BSC in 1994 after a short spell at Fuchse. On the 1st of July 1994, Boateng joined Hertha BSC’s youth program, during his time of admission he was just seven years old. After having a successful developmental spell in the youth setup at the German club, he progressed on to play for the BSC’s reserve team for two season after which he earned a call to their first team squad in the 2005-2006 season.
Kevin’s debut in the first team came in a Bundesliga match against Eintracht Frankfurt in the second round of the 2005-2006 German league season. His debut at just eighteen years of age was a remarkable achievement by the young midfielder, who impressed during his first performance for the German club. Boateng only gained confidence after his first appearance and went onto start the Bundesliga match between Hertha and Borussia Mondechengladbach.
Kevin Prince stated in an interview during his teens that, his football idols were always the Brazilian strikers Pele and Rivaldo and he also admitted that he indulges in imitating the Brazilian duo’s showboating skills on the field. The Ghanaian international footballer has also been criticized for his lack of seriousness when it comes to professional football, as Germany’s Under Nineteen coach Uli Stielike expressed his thoughts about Boateng by stating that, Kevin will have to escape the fantasy football world when he gets into senior tier of professional football.
On 27th of July, 2006 Boateng won the Fritz Walter Gold Medal in the under nineteen category, he won this medal after his impressive performances for Germany’s under seventeen and under eighteen youth teams. Kevin Prince signed for the English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspurs in the month of July 2007. The reported transfer fee for the player amounted to 5.4 million pounds.
The youthful midfielder made his first appearance for Tottenham in an English Premier League match against Middlesbrough on 3rd of November, 2007, however he failed to sustain his place in the starting lineup as Tottenham changed managers soon after. After Juande Ramos became the club manager, Boateng hopes of starting games for Tottenham ended and he was pushed into the reserve team at the London club.
After Ramos was replaced by Harry Redknapp, Boateng was welcomed back into the starting lineup as he started in a four two win over Liverpool in a league cup match. However, he failed to impress and was soon sent out on loan to Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga. At the end of the 2008-2009 season, Portsmouth signed Kevin Prince Boateng for around four million pounds. Ever since his arrival at Portsmouth, Kevin has caught attention of different European clubs due to his energetic displays as an offensive midfielder for the English club.
In International football, Boateng despite having played for Germany at the youth level opted to play for Ghana at the senior level. For Ghana, Prince made his first appearance for Ghana on 5th of June 2010 in a friendly match against Latvia. Later on in the summer, Ghana’s coach Milovan Rajevic named Kevin Prince Boateng in his thirty man squad for the FIFA 2010 World Cup in South Africa. With Kevin in the squad, Ghana made it till the quarter finals for the World Cup where the African footballing giants, played against Uruguay, however the match between the two teams ended in defeat for Ghana as they failed to perform in the penalty shootout.
As Portsmouth were relegated from the English Premier League at the end of the 2009-2010 season, Boateng will now be looking for a new club, with which he will be hoping to feature consistently in starting lineup.
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