{"id":108380,"date":"2023-10-09T14:08:00","date_gmt":"2023-10-09T14:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/09\/why-i-decided-to-play-for-ghana\/"},"modified":"2023-10-09T14:08:00","modified_gmt":"2023-10-09T14:08:00","slug":"why-i-decided-to-play-for-ghana","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2023\/10\/09\/why-i-decided-to-play-for-ghana\/","title":{"rendered":"Why I decided to play for Ghana"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Kevin Prince Boateng<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Kevin-Prince Boateng has finally opened up on why he opted to play for Ghana over Germany.<\/p>\n

According to him, he felt indebted to play for the motherland having contributed his quota to Germany.<\/p>\n

The former Tottenham Hotspur attacker represented his birth country, Germany,\u00a0from the U19 to U21 where he played in the 2005 UEFA European U-19 Football Championship, the 2007 Toulon Tournament in France and the 2009 UEFA European U-21 Football Championship in Sweden.<\/p>\n

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However, in June 2009, Boateng switched nationality to play for Ghana after informing German authorities he had no interest in playing for them again after receiving his Ghanaian passport in May 2010.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Vibe with Five, Boateng said\u00a0he was destined to play for Germany at the senior level, having represented at the youth levels, but never saw himself there because of his personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cI played for German to the U-21 level so it was destined I was going to play for the Germany national team but I didn\u2019t see myself there because I\u2019m a guy who says what he thinks and won\u2019t always do what the coaches tell me to do. Maybe he says \u2018play left\u2019 and I will play right because I think it is the better option because of my mentality, so I didn\u2019t see myself there,\u201d the former Barcelona and AC Milan forward said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd they didn\u2019t see, talent-wise, no doubt, but character-wise, I wasn\u2019t good for the German team. With this back and forth with Germany, our relationship wasn\u2019t good. I didn\u2019t want to go and maybe get the chance to play for the German national team and things go South again and the whole country will hate me, so I said I would take the road and play for my black and make them proud,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

However, Kevin\u2019s paternal half-brother J\u00e9r\u00f4me Boateng, also a professional footballer chose to play for Germany where he represented the U17, U19 and U21 before making his full debut for the senior team in 2009.<\/p>\n

Boateng represented Ghana at the 2010 FIFA World Cup and 2014 editions in South Africa and Brazil respectively.<\/p>\n

During his four-year stay with the Black Stars of Ghana, he capped 15 times for Ghana and scored two goals before announcing his retirement in August 2023.<\/p>\n

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