Kevin Prince Boateng's surreal tales about Messi, Dembele and Ronaldinho
Kevin-Prince Boateng starred a few days ago in a very juicy chat on Rio Ferdinand's podcast, where he explained in detail some anecdotes about his career. Some linked to his time at Barcelona, where he played alongside players such as Messi and Dembelé, and others that he experienced at other teams such as Ronaldinho's Milan.
These are some of the most striking anecdotes:
Messi's video call before scoring two goals against Liverpool in the Champions League
"He was sitting with his phone doing a seated massage. Two minutes before we go out he gets up, ties his boots, we go out. The warm-up was just long balls, controls, dribbling a bit.... crossbar challenge in the warm-up in a Champions League match against Liverpool. Back inside, the coach [then it was Valverde] makes the final adjustments and he's on the phone [smiles]. The coach is talking and he says: 'you have to go right, you have to go left...'. And he's making a video call and he said something like: 'ah, yeah, sure'. 30 seconds before he goes out, he gets up, puts his jacket on, goes out and goal, goal, goal. Crazy," he explained.
Boateng then clarified that no one should compare himself to him:
"Nobody should, because this is what Barça's young players used to do, you know? They watched it, they did it in training and they got injured. Malcom, Dembélé... they always got injured. They didn't train at 100%. Then they played the game and it's different because you can't sprint. I'm the only one in the world who can do that.
Ter Stegen's frustration
"To be honest I have to tell you that Messi doesn't make mistakes. No, seriously, he doesn't. We used to practise shooting from outside the box in training. Messi? 100 shots, 98 goals. I'm telling you: it's not normal. In the corner every shot against Ter Stegen. And I'd say to him in German: 'Come on, man, stop it! and he'd say: 'I can't, man'. He put them in every corner, when they didn't go in we thought he was sick, that he had a fever. He didn't miss one against a goalkeeper like Ter Stegen. And the shots that didn't go in were because the goalkeeper made an unbelievable save, it wasn't normal.
Nights on the piss with Ronaldinho
"He was my hero, partying with him is more than you can imagine. I used to do it from time to time, but I used to tell my wife I was going to play poker. And one night at four o'clock in the morning my mobile started vibrating and I saw it was Ronnie. And my wife said, 'What's wrong, pick up the phone! Of course he was out partying, maybe he was drunk, I don't know.... And he kept calling, he kept calling and finally I picked up the phone, and once I answered, he started saying: 'Where are you' and I said: 'In bed, I can't'. And he said: 'No problem: tell her you're going to poker, to poker'. But of course I didn't go, that way my wife would have realised that every time I told her I was going to poker I was going out partying. Because you could hear Ronnie saying, "Tell her you're going to poker! Tell her you're going to poker!"