Germans ‘do not want Boateng as a neighbour’, politician says

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

Boateng was born in Berlin to a Ghanaian father.

“People find him good as a football player but they don’t want a Boateng as their neighbour,” Mr 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 Ozil and other players with non-exclusively German backgrounds.

Election results

Disenchantment with German 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.

Mr 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.

Reuters