In January 2019, Barcelona realized they had a problem.
The Blaugrana were, at the time, on top of the La Liga table, and were favourites to go on and claim the title. However, with Munir El Haddadi sold to Sevilla, there was a realization their challenge could not be sustained on the back of Luis Suarez alone.
The Uruguayan forward was firmly entrenched as the first-choice striker at the club, but could not reasonably be expected to play every single minute. A back-up was needed, someone who would be content to only play a bit-part role.
The solution to this dilemma – the acquisition of Kevin Prince Boateng on loan from Italian side Sassuolo – led to much incredulity.
While the Ghana international described himself as 'really happy' at the transfer, the sentiment in other quarters was far less enthusiastic; not only had he managed just one double-digit scoring season in his entire career, but his volatile personality made him a potentially disruptive presence in the dressing room.
These concerns were not shared by Barcelona, however; included in the deal that took him to Camp Nou was an option to make the deal permanent after the initial six months.
It was a clause that was ultimately not taken up by the club. However, for half a season, Boateng got to play alongside the player who former teammate Dick van Burik believes he could have rivalled had his early potential been fully realized.
It verges on hyperbole to draw a parallel between the 14-club man and Lionel Messi – he famously of Barcelona for all of his senior club career – but it is high praise nonetheless, especially considering that, for a significant portion of his career, Boateng was not even a forward to begin with.
Look past the sheer implausibility of the comparison by Van Burik though, and what is clear – from his impressive roll of clubs if nothing else – is that Boateng was a player of considerable talent who is perhaps underappreciated, and who was unfairly cast as something of a brute when his intelligence on the pitch was arguably his greatest asset.
Having played parts of his early career in a deep midfield role, the 34-year-old slowly inched forward, morphing into an attacking midfielder and (at times) a winger at AC Milan before becoming a centre-forward while under the tutelage of Quique Setien (who would go on to manage Barcelona himself) at Las Palmas.
Along the way, he won league titles in Italy and Spain, the DFB Pokal in Germany, achieved cult hero status in Milan, often showcasing an ability to singlehandedly win games as part of Silvio Berlusconi’s lost boys project with Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Robinho – his famous backheel flick and volley goal against Barcelona in the Champions League comes to mind.
His adaptation to such a wide range of roles and positions, while retaining his technical quality, speaks to his tactical awareness, as well as to a willingness to take on new information.
Such a versatile, adaptable player would surely have been a dream to manage, and while that goes some way toward explaining why he moved around a lot, it does rather less to make his many incidents of indiscipline and demotivation easy to understand.
For all his talent, Boateng’s great gift seemed to be getting into trouble, often of the needless variety.
Some of it was avoidable; his four-game suspension in 2009 for booting Makoto Hasebe in the face, for example, which effectively ended his loan spell with Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, or the foul on Michael Ballack that ruled the influential German captain out of the 2010 World Cup and sparked such wild criticism in the country of his birth that it 'destroyed' him, ultimately prompting him to take up Ghana’s four-year-old offer to appeat for the Black Stars.
He was considered a disruptive influence at youth level with Germany, and while that assessment was perhaps coloured by a combination of his race, background and non-conformist personality, he did not exactly help himself with his somewhat bohemian lifestyle.
At Schalke, he was photographed drinking and smoking right after a league match and before a doping test; his spell at Tottenham Hotspur was undermined by getting 'fat due to alcohol and bad food' and spending money recklessly; and he famously walked out on Las Palmas after a lone season in the Canary Islands, citing 'irreversible personal reasons'.
On the international stage, he also came under fire for his indifference toward the Black Stars outside of the World Cup, and was thrown out of the squad in 2014 following a spat with the national team coach Kwesi Appiah.
Clearly a volatile individual, but buried under all that baggage was an outrageously powerful player, blessed with vision and flair.
Current Juventus manager Massimiliano Allegri described him as “a player of enormous quality” and Van Burik perhaps best sums up the player in saying: “He can do things that you go to the stadium for.”
What could Boateng have been instead, had he been dialled in at all times?
It is difficult to tell, but Van Burik refers to him and half-brother Jerome as “the greatest players that Hertha have ever trained”, so it is safe to assume a comparable level to the former Manchester City and Bayern Munich man – a multiple Champions League winner – was attainable.
“If I would have had the absolute will, I would have been a starting XI player at Barcelona or would have played 10 years for Real Madrid or Manchester United,” he told Goal in 2019.
So, not Messi then. Boateng was ultimately too flawed to be a god, but even as a man he had it in him to be so much more.
Source: goal.com