The bosses at Bayern Munich are reportedly annoyed by the German center-back’s PR and marketing appointments in the USA with American rapper Jay-Z.
“At the moment there is no direct contact between the clubs, but there is contact with the agents — Jerome has two, after all.” Thus spoke Karl-Heinz Rummenigge last week, candidly acknowledging that Paris Saint-Germain was actively negotiating with Jerome Boateng. Perhaps you were puzzled at the time, as I was, by Rummenigge’s aside: that Boateng has two agents.
The remark, it turns out, was barbed: Boateng is represented in the normal sense of the word by Christian Nerlinger (of CN Sports). The other agent? Sean Carter: the American rap mogul Sean Jay-Z.
In 2015, Boateng became the first professional soccer player to sign with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation Sports, the sports agency branch of the rapper’s massive Roc Nation entertainment company, most prominently known for its music endeavors. Manchester United’s Romelu Lukaku is also represented by Roc Nation.
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That relationship, according to TZ, has become a nuisance to Bayern Munich’s leadership, especially chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. The bosses are supposedly annoyed that Boateng is involved by too many distractions off the pitch.
Boateng’s relationship with Rummenigge in particular has suffered since he signed with Roc Nation. Boateng was named kicker’s 2016 Footballer of the Year, but his poor performance in an embarrassing Champions League defeat by Rostov (in which he also injured himself) made Rummenigge’s annoyance boil over in the widely reported remarks that Boateng needed to come “back to earth” and focus on soccer.