A robust and highly rated young midfielder from Hertha Berlin, Kevin-Prince Boateng joined Spurs in the summer of 2007 for a fee somewhere around £5.4 million. Two days later he married his fiancee Jenny to cap a memorable week.
At 17 he was a fixture in the reserve side at Hertha, who played in a regional league, with Kevin playing 18 games and scoring nine goals.
Breaking into the main side at an early age, Boateng made 43 appearances for the Bundesliga side scoring four times, but his reputation was borne out of his no-nonsense approach to tackling in midfield and his ability to break forward into attack. It was his performances for the German Under-21 side which caught the eye and before that with the goal he scored from inside the centre circle against Greece in the European U19 Championships in 2005.
Spurs were in competition with Sevilla for his signing, but his dream of playing in the Premier League won him over to Spurs. His first season was not impressive, with his appearances in the first team looking as though he hadn't picked up the pace or style of the Premier League, but his best game came in the away win at Portsmouth.
Rumours in the summer of 2008 linked him with a move to VfB Stuttgart either on loan or in a permanent move. While he featured in he pre-season games leading up to the start of the 2009-20 season, his only involvement was as a sub in the League Cup game against Doncaster Rovers, just two days before he was sold to Portsmouth for £4 million.
Starred in the club's progress to the FA Cup Final in 2010, but had a penalty saved as they lost 0-1 to Chelsea and the club were relegated amidst major financial issues. Boateng was selected to play for Ghana in the 2010 World Cup Finals and did well for his country as they reached the quarter-finals. His good form for his adopted nation and the fact that Portsmouth were in the Championship and in desperate straits financially lead to the midfielder signing for Genoa of Italy, from where he immediately went on loan to AC Milan. Shortly afterwards, the Milan owner revealed that the deal was to co-own the player with Genoa.