Joachim Löw, the Germany coach, suggested yesterday that Jérôme Boateng owes him a “debt of gratitude” for his clemency after the defender was caught spending his final night off before his country’s Euro 2012 campaign holed up in a Berlin hotel with a glamour model.
The 23-year-old Bayern Munich player was photographed by Bild, the German tabloid, leaving the pneumatic Gina-Lisa Lohfink’s hotel — where the model insists the pair “just talked” after meeting in the establishment’s bar at 2 o’clock on Monday morning — hours before he joined his team-mates for their flight to Poland from Frankfurt.
On arriving at Germany’s base, Löw said he was “disappointed” at Boateng’s behaviour. “I have let him know what I think,” he said. “I spoke to him about what he was doing during his time off, because I did not like to read all of these headlines. But he is fully focused now. He is a little bit in my debt and he is mentally ready to give 100 per cent over the next few weeks.”
Löw stopped short, though, of confirming that Boateng would retain his place at right back for Germany’s opening game in group B against Portugal in Lviv, Ukraine, tomorrow. Instead, he issued a thinly veiled warning to the defender that he may draft in Lars Bender, the Bayer Leverkusen midfield player, as makeshift cover to punish Boateng for his behaviour.