Kevin-Prince Boateng once bought three cars in a day and wasted money on girls, alcohol and '偽の friends'... but now the man who gave a speech at the UN has turned his life around and wants to advise the next 世代

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He once stood-up in 前線 of the UN and 配達するd a speech on 人種差別主義; if FIFA ever want someone to go into clubs and talk about the 落し穴s of 支払う／賃金ing youngsters fortunes with no thought for how they might 扱う it, Kevin-Prince Boateng would do a pretty good 職業 of that too.

‘It’s true,’ he says when asked to 立証する the tale of him buying three cars in a day while a young player at Tottenham.

‘I still have a picture at home of me standing in-前線 of three cars and a big house and I’m standing there like I’m 50 Cent. I look at it いつかs and I say: “look how stupid you were”.

He makes a good 事例／患者 for young professionals needing more help: ‘If you’re 18, you don’t know anything. And today if you are 18 you get five million 逮捕する a year. You buy the world! That is 正確に／まさに what you think: I can buy the world. I buy friends, I buy girls, I buy cars, I buy everything.’

Boateng’s move to 刺激（する）s was 10 years ago this summer. It ended after two seasons and barely 24 外見s. But it didn’t finish him.

He was 奮起させるd by a young Jurgen Klopp while on 貸付金 at Dortmund and he ended up winning Serie A と一緒に Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He’ll be 30 next month and he’s the only player still playing who has 得点する／非難する／２０d in all four 最高の，を越す European leagues.

支援する in 2007 Boateng was the Memphis Depay of his day. 刺激（する）s director of football Damien Comolli 調印するd him from Hertha Berl?n, but later 認める: ‘We just looked at the talent. We forgot to look at the individual off the pitch.’

He had grown up with his mother and older brother George in a run-負かす／撃墜する part of Berlin. ‘指名するd in the 最高の，を越す ten… but in a 消極的な way,’ he says, 追加するing that the 隣接する Koloniestra?e was a no-go zone for the police except when they were 調査／捜査するing a 狙撃.

Now he 設立する himself living alone in Loughton, 近づく 刺激（する）s’ training ground. And training was soon all he was doing, after ツバメ Jol froze him out.

‘Jol told me after a month that he didn’t want me. So it felt like me against the world; you know that feeling when you shut-off?’ he says.

‘I had a lot of money for a 20-year-old. I thought: Okay so you don’t want me, I will enjoy my life. I went out night-clubbing. And then of course you can’t 成し遂げる.

‘You 結局最後にはーなる trying to buy happiness. I bought a Lamborghini. Wow! I was happy for a week. After that I didn’t even use the car. Who 運動s around Loughton in a Lamborghini?’

Football clubs are a little wiser now, but still they leave players to the mercy of their own 網状組織 of friends ? not always a good idea.

‘I got friends to come visit me but they weren’t real friends,’ says Boateng. ‘They weren’t the type of friends who will tell you: “What the f*** are you doing? Go and train and play football.” They were friends who would say: “Let’s go out”.

‘At first you don’t think that anything is going wrong. You’re dropped to the second team but you see your money coming in and you say: “okay, I get my fun somewhere else”. Girls, nightclubs, friends, 偽の friends.

‘But in the end I woke up one morning and looked in the mirror and thought: no that’s not what I want to be. I looked old because every night I was out until six in the morning. I was 95 キロs. I was swollen because of the drinking and the bad food. I said to myself: “I don’t want to be this guy”.’

Not all of Boateng’s friends were happy to watch him waste away his career and with some help he cleaned his fridge out, started cooking healthy food for himself and stopped drinking.

‘Two really good friends in London who I still talk to （機の）カム over and we cleaned my whole house together. They said: “If you want to go out, we will go out, but we will be behind you if you want to play football”.’

The chance to play （機の）カム when he went on-貸付金 to Dortmund managed by a still 比較して unknown?Klopp.

‘He is the best coach in the world,’ Boateng says. ‘There were players at Dortmund that played five minutes in that whole six months but they were happy to work hard because he gave you that feeling that you were important. Not やむを得ず as a player ? maybe he didn’t need you as a player ? but as a person.’

Klopp 手配中の，お尋ね者 Dortmund to keep Boateng but a price couldn’t be agreed and so he went to Portsmouth instead.

‘I’m happy to have met Klopp,’ he says. ‘I could see that Dortmund was going to be something special. I could see the team had a togetherness that every club dreams of. Liverpool is the perfect place for him now.’

Portsmouth were already hurtling に向かって 財政上の 炉心溶融 when he joined but Boateng says he just 手配中の，お尋ね者 to play.

‘They said: “the stadium is small”. I said: “I don’t care”. They said: “The pitch is bad”. I said: “I don’t care”. They said: “They have no money”. I said: “I don’t care”. It was small, but it was noisy. They were real fans. It was crazy, it was beautiful.’?

And never more so when he 得点する／非難する／２０d in the FA Cup 半分-final at Wembley to （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Tottenham. ‘It was a little 支払う／賃金-支援する to show them that while I had made mistakes, they had made a mistake too,’ he says.

In keeping with the 疑わしい 財政上の goings-on at Portsmouth, when Boateng left the club he joined two teams in one day ? 調印 for Genoa, and すぐに joining Milan on 貸付金.

‘Two weeks after my スパイ／執行官 told me I was joining Genoa he called and said: “What do you think about Milan?” And I said to him: “Yeah it’s a 広大な／多数の／重要な club. Why?” He said: “Would you like to play for Milan?” I went to Milan. Genoa were still in the 取引，協定 but I knew I was never going to play for them.’

It was in Italy, fresh from playing his part in Ghana reaching the World Cup ４半期/4分の1-決勝戦 and 会合 Nelson Mandela, that he played his best football, and in very special company too.

‘I remember my first day in the dressing room I just saw the 指名するs and I said: this is a dream. I called my older brother and said: You know I’m sitting next to [Andrea] Pirlo. He said: “Take a picture! Take a picture!” And I had Beckham’ s locker because he had just left.

Of all the 星／主役にするs in the Milan 星雲, Ronaldinho 含むd, Ibrahimovic was the one who made the biggest 衝撃. ‘You think he’s going to be this arrogant big f***** and not a nice guy at all, but he’s the 絶対の opposite. On the pitch, he’s very serious, very professional. But off it he’s just the funniest guy.’

The team won Serie A. ‘How could they not with those players?’ Boateng says, 追加するing: ‘They had a superstar in every position and the crazy thing was that I was playing! I knew that everybody there had talent and technique ? maybe the only one with いっそう少なく technique was [Gennaro] Gattuso. But he had another talent: he ran 120 minutes like a psycho ? so I had to bring something different. I brought a fighting spirit. I was running, I was getting fouls, I was kicking people, to the point where they started 説: “He’s the new Gattuso”.’

Boateng famously stole the show at the 肩書を与える-祝賀, moonwalking dressed as Michael Jackson. It was homage to one o f his biggest heroes, just 12 months after he had met another ? Nelson Mandela.

‘He was 向こうずねing,’ he says beaming at the memory of the 遭遇（する）. ‘He was like an angel sat there. And luckily he broke the ice.

It was the South Africa World Cup and “David 黒人／ボイコット-ham” was what they were calling me.

‘Everybody was going crazy for me so we go into the room and everyone says: “Hello, hello, hello” and he shook my 手渡す and he pulled me に向かって him and he said: “My daughter wants to marry you.” I said: “Sorry I already have a girlfriend,” and he said “no, no but I have others!”

‘When you 会合，会う one of these people it’s hard to 述べる the joy. Mandela was in 刑務所，拘置所 for 27 years just because he was standing up for his 権利s and he sits there and he has no 怒り／怒る inside of him. It was an incredible moment for me.’

Boateng would go on to do his bit to fight prejudice in January 2013 when he walked off the pitch in a friendly against Italian fourth 分割 味方する プロの／賛成の Patria after he had been 人種上 乱用d by a section of the （人が）群がる.

His team-mates walked with him and Rio Ferdinand was a mong those who 拍手喝采する the move.

That’s how Boateng ended up 配達するing a speech to the UN and 長，率いるing up the first ever FIFA anti-人種差別主義 taskforce. It’s one they abandoned last September, laughably 宣言するing: ‘職業 done’.

‘It is not something that you can 直す／買収する，八百長をする in a couple of years and yes it goes beyond football, but we have the chance to do more, in what is the biggest sport in the world,’ he says. ‘Just having people 説 no to 人種差別主義 on a 商業の changes nothing.’

He read about the break-up of the taskforce in the papers: ‘I was not even 知らせるd. And we have seen what happened to [Mario] Balotelli playing in Bastia since. He is a の近くに friend of 地雷 and we spoke about it. He said to me: “What can I do? I can put something on Instagram, I can put something on Twitter.” But there is nothing else he can do. He can’t fight 人種差別主義 alone. And I know that walking off every time is not the answer.’

He 述べるs the speech to the UN and the ovation he received as ‘the craziest moment’ of his life. ‘I was so nervous. I was sweating and my 脚s were trembling and the n the woman ? I forget her 指名する ? tapped me under the （米）棚上げする／（英）提議する and said: “Okay don’t worry, you’ll be 罰金”. I was thinking: No, I won’t. All I could see were the sixty cameras all with their red 記録，記録的な／記録するing lights on.’

When asked what he will do when he stops playing he doesn’t see a 未来 in the politics of sport. But helping young players keep their 長，率いるs while all those around them want to spend their money will be a crusade in itself.

解任するing those Tottenham days again he says: ‘There are always two 味方するs to the story when something goes wrong. I know I did bad stuff. I went out. I went clubbing. But I was 20! I left my home, my family, all my friends. I was alone there.?

No one cares. No one （機の）カム to ask me “How are you?”. If you don’t 成し遂げる on the pitch they will 裁判官 you. I understand because I was a fan at Hertha Berlin and I 裁判官d the players there. You are a number in the system. You cost money, so if you don’t work… they change the number.’

He 計画（する）s to 結局 work as an スパイ／執行官 or 助言者, ‘help these young guys to be the best they can be,’ he says.

Boateng was the best he could be… 結局. And it’s not over yet. Las Palmas are ambitious and （警官の）巡回区域，受持ち区域 Middlesbrough to the 調印 of Jese Rodriguez from Paris Saint Germain; they want to qualify for the Europa League. Can the Prince get 支援する into Europe? Why not?’ he says.

It would be some story ? another for the collection.?