Bayern Munich defender, Jerome Boatenf has said he will not mind a move to the English premier league.
The German has suffered a consistent injury setback in recent times despite being a key player for the Bundesliga giants.
“There were hard times,” Jérôme Boateng says as his mind drifts back to Bayern Munich’s wobbles at the start of the season. “It’s like being a child. As a child if I had no confidence, if you don’t get trust from your friends, then you lose the joy of the game. That’s what happens now, even when I’m older.”
Boateng, one of the finest defenders of his generation, could feel the spark ebbing away. Bayern were on the slide under Niko Kovac, a coach struggling to connect with a champion squad, and time finally appeared to have caught up with the old guard. Thomas Müller and Manuel Neuer were under pressure and Boateng, aware that people were starting to view him as a fading force, wondered whether a change of scenery was required.
“There were thoughts at some stage,” he says. “Do I need to change now? I won’t play for ever and I want to enjoy football. I knew I still trained good and in my opinion not everybody has to have the same opinion, I deserved a chance to play and to show that I can play at a high level. At some point if you see it’s not working between the sides then you have to make a clean cut. A nice cut, not a dirty cut.”
Yet Bayern, languishing in seventh place in the Bundesliga at one stage, have come roaring back since replacing Kovac with Hansi Flick in December. They have won their eighth successive title, thumped Bayer Leverkusen in the German Cup final and are one of the favourites to win the Champions League before the second leg of their last-16 tie against Chelsea at the Allianz Arena on Saturday night.