Conviction for assault overturned: Boateng celebrates successful debut in Salernitana

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Just 62 minutes of playing time is enough to bring back the positive headlines. Jérôme Boateng will make his debut for his new employer Salernitana on Sunday – just two days after the transfer was officially announced. The 2014 German world champion received high praise from the media and his coach Filippo Inzaghi (50) for his performance in the 0-0 draw against FC Torino. “Inzaghi builds the Boateng wall” is the headline of the Italian portal footballnews24.eu.

Unexpected comeback after a long break

In his first appearance since June, the central defender played a major role in the first points gain of the new year for the southern Italians after four consecutive defeats. The bottom of Serie A desperately needs defensive stability: for the team with the most goals conceded in the league, it was only the second game without a clean sheet on matchday 23.

Boateng’s appearance was not planned at all: due to a failure, Inzaghi resorted to the new signing, even though his last appearance was more than six months ago. “I thought he was going to tell me if I was crazy for letting him play. But I knew what a great champion he was,” says the former star striker. The former Bayern defender only played 136 minutes for Olympique Lyon in 2023 and has even been without a club since the summer.

Lots of negative headlines

The celebrated world champion’s descent started slowly – with malice over Boateng’s clumsy defensive behavior against Messi in the 2015 Champions League semi-final between Bayern and Barcelona. Three years later – at the 2018 World Cup – Boateng was sent off in the second group match and Germany were eliminated from the World Cup group stage for the first time. The defender then only made three more international matches before the then national coach Jogi Löw (64) removed him from his selection.

Convicted of assault

Then the problems became more serious: from December 2019, Munich authorities investigated domestic violence, on the one hand, against his ex-partner Sherin Senler, the mother of his children. On the other hand, opposite his then girlfriend Kasia Lenhardt († 25), who committed suicide in 2021 just a few days after an interview by Boateng in ‘Bild’.

The investigation was reopened and Boateng was convicted of two counts of assault. In October 2022, the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” also announced that Lenhardt had signed a confidentiality agreement a few days before the interview, making it impossible for her to respond to Boateng’s statements. The verdicts have now been annulled due to procedural errors. Therefore, Boateng is legally considered innocent. But the last word in court has not yet been spoken.

Source : Blick