Boateng at Barça: With the handicap of the royal crown

“As a child I always watched Real Madrid on TV. It was my childhood dream to play for Real one day. There were stars there like Figo, Ronaldo and Zidane that I admired. When I was 20, I thought to myself: Madrid is called the Royals. My middle name (Prince) also fits a bit with this. So I had a crown pierced on my neck based on both,” said Boateng in an interview with Sport Bild in 2014.

At the time, he would hardly have imagined that he would receive an offer from another big club again in his career. Especially not from a club like Barça. But sometimes unbelievable things happen in football. Boateng, who was too bad and short-tempered for the Bundesliga and Schalke 2014 in 04, will play in a team with Lionel Messi in the future. In fact, Boateng arrived at his signing in Barcelona wearing a fine designer suit. The shirt was of course buttoned up to the last hole, so the crown on the neck could not be fully identified.

Arturo Vidal and Kevin-Prince Boateng will be teammates in the future.

Why are Barça bringing Boateng? Boateng will almost certainly not come to Catalonia as a regular player. But he closes the gap in a position that has been giving Barça coach Ernesto Valverde a headache for a while. After the departures of Paco Alcacer (to Borussia Dortmund in the summer) and Munir El Haddadi (to Sevilla FC in the winter), Luis Suárez was recently the only nominal center forward in the squad. Suárez is still one of the best in his field, but at the age of 31, the Uruguayan can no longer dance consistently at three weddings (La Liga, Champions League and Copa del Rey).

Barça therefore entered the poker game for Alvaro Morata, but lost out against Atletico Madrid. So the focus turned more and more to a player from the older guard. In the end, the choice fell on Boateng. The German-Ghanaian is not just a number nine. He is more of an all-rounder who can also play as a six if necessary. Boateng's versatility, coupled with his experience, seemingly convinced Valverde. With a loan fee of two million euros, the 31-year-old was also the cheapest alternative.

It is well known in Spain that the trained midfielder Boateng has formidable finishing strength: in the 2016/2017 season, Boateng achieved his career best of ten goals in the UD Las Palmas jersey. This is also likely to have convinced Barça, alongside the fact that he is showing increasing form in the late autumn of his career and finally seems to be making something of his talent. Only last summer, after a successful season with Eintracht Frankfurt, crowned by the DFB Cup victory against FC Bayern, Boateng himself asked to be allowed to leave the club for Sassuolo (Emilia Romagna). This was mainly due to family reasons.

Now Boateng received an offer that he couldn't refuse simply because of his love for football. It remains to be seen whether the Spanish champions will also pay the 8 million purchase option in the summer and whether the Catalan fans will forgive him for the royal crown on his fully tattooed neck. Kevin-Prince Boateng: The career stages of a “wandering bird” Station no. Year About us 1. 2005-2007 Hertha BSC 2. 2007-2009 Tottenham Hotspur 3. 2009 Borussia Dortmund 4. 2009-2010 Portsmouth FC 5. 2010-2013 AC Milan 6. 2013-2015 FC Schalke 04 7. 2016 AC Milan 8. 2016-2017 UD Las Palmas 9. 2017-2018 Eintracht Frankfurt 10. 2018-2019 U.S. Sassuolo 11. since 2019 FC Barcelona

ES Primera Division International	SP	TV	P
1. Real Madrid	33	71:22	84
2.Girona F.C.	33	69:40	71
3. FC Barcelona	32	64:37	70
4. Atletico Madrid	33	62:39	64
5. Athletic Bilbao	33	53:33	58
6. Royal Society	33	46:35	51
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Boateng at Barça: With the handicap of the royal crown

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