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19 March 2024

Would you want this man as your neighbour?

Bayern Munich's Jerome Boaten. (REUTERS)

Published
By Agencies

People in Germany would not want soccer star Jerome Boateng, born in Berlin from a Ghanaian father, as their neighbour,  Alexander Gauland, vice chair of anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany, said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Sunday.

"People find him good as a football player but they don't want a Boateng as their neighbour," Gauland told the Sunday edition of the newspaper.

Bayern Munich defender Boateng is a stalwart of Germany's  national football team and is likely to feature in Germany's starting eleven at next month's European Championship, along with third-generation Turkish-German winger Mesut Özil and other players with non-exclusively German backgrounds.

Disenchantment with the chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance towards refugees helped to propel the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany to strong results in regional elections this year.

Gauland's comments come days after supporters of German anti-Islam group Pegida criticised a confectioner's decision to print images of non-white soccer players on its chocolate bars instead of the usual picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy.