Barcelona signs its 14th African, first Ghanaian: Kevin Prince Boateng

Spanish and European football giants, Barcelona, have confirmed the signing on loan of former Ghana international, Kevin Prince Boateng.

The 31-year-old becomes the first Ghanaian and fourteenth African player to wear the colours of the Catalan club.

“FC Barcelona and US Sassuolo have arrived at an agreement for the loan of the player Kevin-Prince Boateng for the remainder of the 2018/19 season. The agreement includes an €8m purchase option,” the club said in a statement on Monday, January 21.

Kevin and his footballer brother Jerome were born to a Ghanaian and a German couple. His brother, however, opted to play for the German national team.

He, on the other hand, was an international in Germany’s lower national teams until he achieved dual German-Ghanaian nationality in 2010.

He was part of Ghana Black Stars that played in two World Cups – South Africa 2010 and Brazil 2014. He faced his brother when Ghana and Germany met in both tournaments.

The first match ended 0-1 in favour of the German team, while in 2014 the match ended with a heroic 2-2 draw.

“Formed in Hertha Berlin’s junior sides – a team with which he debuted in the Bundesliga -, Boateng has played in four of the five major European leagues wearing the shirts of Tottenham, Portsmouth, Milan, Schalke, Eintracht Frankfurt, Las Palmas and Sassuolo, the team from which he arrives to Barcelona,” Barcelona’s official website noted.

Boateng becomes the 14th African footballer to wear the Barca shirt. Other notable African players to have played for the side include: Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o Fils, Ivory Coast’s Yaya Toure and Seydou Keita of Mali.

The only African currently in the side is Samuel Umtiti, Cameroon-born French international. The first African to line up for the side was Jorge Alberto Mendoca, an Angolan who played between 1966 – 1969.

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— FC Barcelona (FCBarcelona) January 21, 2019