The fact that Jérôme Boateng’s dealings with women were anything but exemplary has not only been known since the suicide of his ex-girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt. Now the star kicker has been convicted of assault. Women bats have no place in football!
They dodge taxes, pee in hotel lobbies, get into fights and cause drunk car accidents. Sometimes they have to answer for their actions, but in many cases they get off lightly: footballers, at least it seems, have a certain freedom to fool themselves in this country. They earn millions, have a whole armada of consultants, assistants and lawyers and then there are always the many fans who often forgive misconduct because the idol scored such a great goal again.
They are courted, lead a life in the lap of luxury thanks to their fees and also bag huge sums of money with lucrative advertising deals. It’s hypocritical when advertisers pretend they care about equality and humanity while their behind-the-scenes testimonials act like an ax in the woods. But as long as the ruble rolls in and both sides are raking in the cash, there is no need to publicize any misconduct unnecessarily – according to the general consensus.
One of the so-called bad boys, who got away with his behavior for far too long, is the 2014 soccer world champion, Jérôme Boateng, who has had a criminal record since this week for hitting his then partner Shirin S., the mother of his children. In the appeal process, the judge saw it as proven that Boateng not only insulted his ex-girlfriend on a vacation together in the Caribbean. There is talk of kicks and bruises. The verdict: guilty of double assault.
All of these events were, and this is what makes it even sadder, in 2018! And it was no secret within the circles that the soccer star moves in and protects him. On the contrary! The public prosecutor’s office even said that this publicized incident was only “the tip of the iceberg”. The relationship was one that was always marked by violence. And here, too, it is immediately defensive that the talent of the footballer must be separated from the man who is now a convicted woman beater who, according to the co-plaintiff, reveals “a pathological pattern of violence”.
Boateng is a world-class player. This line of reasoning is of course botched, because football stars are not above the law and have a certain role model function. Posters of their likenesses hang in countless youth rooms. What a sign to the youth when they say: okay, this is a guy who insults, hits and intimidates women, but he’s a genius on the field.
There is talk of immense damage to his image, of the fact that Boateng’s sponsors have jumped off and his career has suffered a severe blow as a result of this judgement. But what about the women? What about the mother of his children who was said to only want to “do the dirty laundry”? What about the intimidation, the threats, and the web of people that have kept women’s voices unheard for far too long? All these people, they are complicit! Because the football professional’s aggression problem was well known! And yet another partner, Kasia Lenhardt, who took her own life after her relationship with Boateng, was literally run into the open knife. No help for her. No protection. Instead, hate on the internet, a smear campaign and lies against which she was too weak to defend herself.
In this context, the secondary prosecutor spoke of a “David-versus-Goliath fight”. Here the woman, who in most cases is financially dependent, there the man, the star football player with a whole network of helpers. How powerless these women must have felt!
Now it comes to light: How Jérôme Boateng dealt with his ex-girlfriend Shirin S., but also with Kasia Lenhardt, is “not an isolated case in the footballer scene, but structurally significant”. Many wives of famous soccer players experience domestic violence. They are all silent – out of fear. They endure beatings, threats and intimidation. And they sign non-disclosure agreements while their husbands are cheered on by millions of fans on the field.
