Former Tottenham Hotspur, Portsmouth, and AC Milan midfielder Kevin Prince-Boateng has had one of the more interesting careers of any professional footballer.
Having been plucked from the Hertha Berlin academy to join Spurs as a teenager, KPB never made the breakthrough at the London club and in a recent chat with Sid Lowe for The Guardian, it's easy to see why.
After he left White Hart Lane he enjoyed relative success in leagues around Europe, and even played against his big brother Jerome Boateng in the 2010 World Cup for Ghana, but while he was a Spurs player his life was in danger of being lead down a dead-end.
Disillusioned with a lack of opportunities under Martin Jol, Prince-Boateng resorted to trying to find enjoyment elsewhere and soon found himself going out on the piss as often as six nights a week.
Then, one day, he caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror and snapped out of it.
I looked old.
Every night I was out until six. I was like 95 kilos, swollen from the drinking and bad food. I said: ‘This can’t be me, I don’t want to be that guy. I have something inside: I’m a football player.’ I called my friends, two real friends, and they came. Together, we cleaned out my fridge and the house. That day, I said: ‘No, stop it.’ I didn’t drink. I didn’t go out. I started cooking; I wanted to eat healthily. From one day to the next.” Boateng clicks his fingers. “If I did it slowly, maybe I wouldn’t do it. I needed a clean break.
Martin Jol told me he didn’t want me after a month. So, it became me against the world. You know when you shut off? That was me. ‘You don’t want me? I’ll enjoy life.’ I realise now how bad it was: six days a week nightclubbing, drinking for almost a year. But I was only 20. You don’t think things are going wrong. You see money coming in. ‘OK, I get my fun somewhere else.’ Girls, nightclubs, friends … Fake friends.
So how did he get a grip?
Incredibly, he simply decided to stop, and to look for more meaning in his life.
After wasting money on clothes, cars, and other material items, he decided that he wasn't going to make it as a footballer unless he sought more from life.
I was spending serious amounts: nightclubs, clothes, cars.. Because you try to buy happiness. I couldn’t play football so I buy a Lamborghini. Wow, you’re happy for a week. After that you don’t even use it. Who drives around Loughton in a Lamborghini? I still have a picture: three cars, big house, I’m standing there like I’m 50 Cent. I look at it sometimes and say: ‘Look how stupid you were.’ But that made me who I am and I can look back and see it.
I’ve learned. I grew up.
It sounds remarkable, but Kevin Prince-Boateng is a remarkable individual. After walking off the pitch when his teammates were subjected to racist abuse during a friendly while at AC Milan, KPB was invited to give a speech about racism at the United Nations, to which he received a standing ovation.
He also had Nelson Mandela personally tell him that his daughter wanted to marry him, and you can read about that mental story along with a number of others in the full in the cracking interview with Lowe for The Guardian.
