BERLIN — “Without being arrogant, the difference was that I was special,” Kevin-Prince Boateng tells ESPN. “There aren’t many players like me; they come once every 10 years.”
The 35-year-old attacking midfielder sits in a conference room at the headquarters of Hertha Berlin. Thick gold chains hang around his neck. He leans back in his chair and sips his cappuccino before speaking.
Prince, as everyone who walks these halls refers to him, is still the same self-confident man who once made many enemies in many dressing rooms and beyond, but he is far more beloved these days. He seems at ease with himself and the way his career has unfolded, a career in which he has played for 13 different clubs in five countries.
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It all started, and will eventually end, in Berlin with Hertha.
Boateng joined the club as a 7-year-old while growing up in one of the city’s poorest neighbourhoods. A local newspaper once coined the phrase “Wedding gen” to describe the mentality of Boateng and his peers from the boroughs of Wedding, located in the western part of the booming city. Wedding is poor, neglected and run-down, yet full of dreams. It was there, and in nearby districts like Gesundbrunnen, that Prince and his half-brother Jerome played and practices the game in football cages as kids.
“We came from the streets,” Boateng remembers. Despite the presence of Jerome and others, he didn’t necessarily have a feeling of belonging. “My mom had her demons. My dad had his demons. End of story. I was alone. I achieved all this alone. That’s why I became a professional player. I didn’t have anything else. The only alternative was to hang out on the streets. No! I had a gift, I had talent.”
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Hertha helped him foster his talent, particularly his skills as an attacking midfielder. He won the 2003 Under-17 German Championship with Hertha, beating VfB Stuttgart 4-1 in the final. While the majority of his teammates from that time never made it to the Bundesliga, Boateng went on to become a household name with stints at AC Milan, Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund, which he accounts to his extraordinary abilities as well as his attitude.
“I knew I had to kick other people aside to get my spot,” he says. “My teammates said to me: ‘Jeez, Prince, keep your mouth shut!’ But I had to get to the top.” Being a brash youngster made things difficult at Hertha and other clubs throughout the first half of his career, he acknowledges. “Yes, I didn’t always have my emotions under control when I was younger. That was my mistake, I know that now. When someone wasn’t as good a player as I was, I didn’t respect him. That was wrong.”
While regretting that he had possibly too much of a chip on his shoulder in his early years, there was a particular reason for his attitude. His upbringing and the fear of having to go back to Wedding was not an option for him. “When I was 17, I almost got into fights with teammates,” Boateng says of his mindset in those days. “I butted heads with someone like Niko Kovac because I told myself that this was my chance and you had to kill me to rip that away from me.”
At various points in his career, Boateng was ready to do just that, and circumstances forced him to give his all one more time back in May, when Hertha were fighting for their survival in the Bundesliga. In what could have been Boateng’s final professional game, Hertha edged out a win over Hamburg in the relegation playoffs, avoiding the drop by the slightest of margins. As he had only signed a one-year contract in the summer of 2021, Boateng’s retirement was expected last spring, but he decided to play one more season before hanging up his boots — or burning them, as he describes it.
“I am actually looking forward to burning my boots. I am excited about this season, yet after this one, it is over. Then I am finally in my office, can sit around and speak badly of the players,” he says with a big laugh.
This campaign is labelled as yet another fresh start for Hertha, with a managerial change over the summer (Felix Magath out, Sandro Schwarz in) and a reinvigorated group of players. Schwarz has certainly improved the aesthetics of the Berliners’ football, while the effervescent play of attackers Dodi Lukebakio and Chidera Ejuke has some fans dreaming of better days in the Olympiastadion.
Boateng has become a bit-part player in terms of the time he spends on the field, with him often coming on for the final 10 minutes, but he remains immensely valuable in the dressing room. Club insiders describe him as Schwarz’s primary liaison.
“It was clear when I extended [my contract] that I wouldn’t get as many minutes as I had usually gotten in my career. It has to do with my age. It has to do with how demanding the Bundesliga is. But I know that I am very, very important for the team, for the club,” Boateng states, adding that feeling relevant within the team is most important to him at this stage of his career.
“I try to share knowledge with the boys every day,” he says. “Not just with the 18-year-olds, but even with someone like Lucas Tousart, who is quite experienced himself. It is great that I have gathered so much experience in different countries and have learned about how others, other cultures view and understand football.”
