England-based midfielder George Boateng has learnt to live with the fact that he will never play international football for his native Ghana. But the thought of playing alongside the richly-talented Stephen Appiah, Sulley Muntari and Michael Essien in the Black Stars engine room is one that struggles to go away. As a naive teenager Boateng made the decision to switch to Dutch nationality in a bid to make it easier to get into the Feyenoord first team. It was a choice that would end up having more far reaching consequences than he ever imagined. "At 15, I had to change my nationality from Ghanaian to Dutch, because at the time there were only three non EU (European Union) residents allowed to play in the first-team," Boateng told AFP. "I had to change it to give me a better chance of playing at Feyenoord. "As soon as I changed I played for the Holland Under-16s, then I played for the Under-21s at 19-years-old and captained them for three years. My life was actually in Holland, I never kicked a ball in Ghana, only street football. "I can't play for Ghana now. Sometimes I wish it would have been different, because I didn't play that many games for the full Dutch national team, only seven or eight. If I had played 30 games or more for Holland then it would not bother me as much. "Sometimes I wish that I had played with Appiah and Essien for Ghana, but that is life and you have to get past that. "I enjoyed watching them in the World Cup and when I saw Essien recently, we talked about how good it would have been for me to play with them for Ghana. But sadly, I will never get that opportunity to do so now. Instead, I have to be happy with being Ghana's biggest fan." The Netherlands is renowned for having one of best the youth coaching set-ups in the world, but when the nine-year-old Boateng moved there it was to receive an education of a different kind. "I was very good at school and I wanted to become a pilot so my dad took me to Holland to study," he explained. "On sports days in school, I would play football. On the first day that I played in school, I got approached by a scout and asked if I wanted to go and be a professional footballer and I said 'no'. "All my friends were saying 'are you crazy?' but I thought no because I came here to study - I want to be a pilot and my dad was also against the idea too. "I was 11-years-old when I was first approached but then gradually, going professional was inevitable because I signed up for the local teams and started scoring goals. "A professional team came in for me and I had a trial and that got the ball rolling. So eventually I had to choose whether to play football or pursue my dream of becoming a pilot." Boateng may still be an active player but that hasn't stopped him thinking about a career in management after he hangs up his boots. And that's something he feels is now as much an option for black players as anyone else. "It's great to have a black manager in the Premier League but I don't feel it matters anymore. It's 2008, it was a big thing that Paul Ince got the (Blackburn Rovers) job, but the door is open now. "We've just got the first black American president - the chance to succeed is there, you just have to reach out and grab it." Source: AFP