The ARD has dedicated a three-part documentary to Jérôme Boateng. However, the viewer is disappointed.
Jérôme Boateng played for FC Bayern for ten years and won numerous titles with the German record champions. The 37-year-old was also successful with the German national team. The three-part ARD documentary “Being Jérôme Boateng” deals with the former defender and recounts his career chronologically. In the last episode, the three-part documentary also looks at the turbulent private life of the Berlin native.
But that’s exactly where the problem lies: the viewer was hoping to get a clearer picture of the ex-footballer’s past years. About the allegations of violence from his ex-girlfriend, the court proceedings, the death of his former partner Kasia Lenhardt. However, this hope is not fulfilled – on the contrary. The viewer is left with more questions than answered: no win for anyone.
Boateng does comment on Lenhardt and explains in his interview in the “Bild” newspaper, in which he pilloried Lenhardt, that this was “a mistake”. However, he doesn’t go into detail about it. He also says: “It was important to me to say that she was a really great person and played a big role in my life.” The question arises: Why did Boateng speak to the tabloid in such detail back then? Then why did he publicly attack Lenhardt? There are no answers to this. That’s disappointing.
Boateng complains that he lost a loved one in Lenhardt, but that he was denied the right to mourn. But he doesn’t answer what it looked like inside him or looks like at the moment. He doesn’t reveal any details about his emotional life. All we learn is that he is still coming to terms with her death.
Here the makers should have asked more critical questions or shown a different perspective. Boateng’s mother or his brother Kevin-Prince could certainly have provided a different perspective on this chapter. Nobody from Kasia Lenhardt’s environment has a say either. Only his father speaks at the beginning of the documentary. But it’s all about sport. Everything private that would have been important in the Boateng case was missing.
In the end the question arises as to why ARD chose Boateng for this documentary. You don’t find out what you would like to know more about from the ex-footballer. Perhaps a three-part series about the career of Toni Kroos, Mats Hummels or another 2014 World Champion colleague would have been more interesting.