German World Cup winner Jérôme Boateng intends to go into coaching after announcing his retirement on Friday.
“I want to be a coach in professional football,” Boateng told the Sunday edition of the Welt newspaper.
“I recently completed the training course and examination for my B licence. Now I want to get the A licence (…) and begin as an assistant coach at a club as soon as possible.”
Boateng received his UEFA B coaching licence in November 2024 in a special course run by the Bavarian Football Association (BFV).
The Berlin-born defender won 76 Germany caps between 2009 and 2018, and was a stalwart during the 2014 World Cup title run in Brazil. He also won the U21 Euros in 2009 and received Germany’s Footballer of the Year award in 2016.
The 37-year-old ended his career via Instagram on Friday.
“Football has given me a lot, now it is time to move on. Not because I have to but because I am ready,” Boateng said in a video.
“I am grateful for everything. I played for a long time, for big clubs, for my country,” he said. “I have learnt, won, lost.”
Boateng made his Bundesliga debut in 2007 at Hertha Berlin, and enjoyed a glorious run of success during a decade at Bayern Munich winning two Champions Leagues, nine Bundesligas and five German Cups before leaving in 2021.
He then played for Olympique Lyon, Italy’s Salernitana, and finally Austria’s Linzer ASK where he terminated his contract in August after featuring in only 14 games.
Boateng revealed he had been thinking about retirement since June.
“I could have played for longer. But then it would have been mainly about enjoying my last years as a player,” he told Welt. “I’d rather make room for young players and concentrate on a new phase of my life.”
He also commented again on allegations of assault on his former girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt, which were dropped by the Munich public prosecutor’s office in March. Boateng denied ever hitting a woman.
While the charges were dropped, he received a caution from the Munich Regional Court in 2024 for deliberately causing her bodily harm.
“I was cautioned because I injured my ex-girlfriend’s eye during an argument, although I would like to emphasize that she injured my lip first,” he said. “It was a scuffle in which we injured each other in an argument.”
His half-brother Kevin-Prince Boateng, a fellow professional footballer who played internationally for Ghana, publicly distanced himself from Jérôme because of the allegations.
“We met some time ago to talk. He apologized to me for the statements in question. And revealed to me that he made them out of years of envy towards me,” said Jérôme Boateng.
He accepted the apology, but the two are not currently in contact, he said.
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