One is a defender for Germany, the other a midfielder for Ghana. On Wednesday the two brothers meet in a match which will decide their teams’ 2010 World Cup future.
Born in Berlin, the Boateng brothers could come face to face on the Soccer City pitch in Johannesburg — making it a first World Cup match featuring brothers playing for opposing teams.
They are half-brothers to be more exact, with a father from Ghana, and the meeting on the pitch may also not happen. Although 23-year-old Kevin-Prince will almost certainly start in Ghana’s midfield, 21-year-old Jerome can only hope to come off the German substitutes’ bench.
The match has been given some added spice by Kevin-Prince Boateng’s tackle on Michael Ballack in the English FA Cup final on May 15 which ruled Germany’s erstwhile captain out of the World Cup.
It was a foul which turned Boateng, who already had a bad-boy reputation in Germany, into public enemy number one for football fans. It also led to a cooling of relations between the two brothers. Portsmouth’s Kevin-Prince was annoyed by comments afterwards by Jerome, who said a red card should have been shown for the tackle. “After the things he said about my foul on Michael Ballack, we fell out,” he said. “We see the event differently. I said to him that we should go our separate ways,” Prince said.
Jerome admits he is not on speaking terms with Kevin-Prince but defends his brother from the criticism and insults he had received in Germany. “He is my brother and remains my brother. I really wish him the best but at the moment it is just that we don’t have anything to say to each other,” he said.
The foul on Ballack, who suffered torn ankle ligaments, was not a deliberate one. “It can’t be right that people have begun internet pages and made racist comments,” he said.
The irony is that both could have been playing together for Germany. Kevin-Prince seemed destined for great things for the country of his birth.
But upset at his treatment and what he saw as his lack of international prospects, he turned last year to Ghana who have gladly included him in their fold. Now the boy who grew up in the working class Berlin district of Wedding and whose maternal grandfather is a cousin of German legend Helmut Rahn — scorer of the winning goal at the 1954 World Cup final — is already becoming a key player for Ghana. — DPA