Nelson Mandela wanted me to marry his daughter – Kevin Boateng

Boateng was part of Ghana’s 2010 World Cup squad who finished at the quarter-final stage.

The iconic African great pulled no punches when he told the Las Palmas midfielder to marry his daughter.

“Luckily he broke the ice, because you just stand there. It was the World Cup, people were calling me ‘David Black-ham’, going crazy for me. I was kind of like a star,” he told The Guardian

“We go into the room: ‘Hello … hello … hello.’ He shook my hand, pulled me towards him and said: ‘My daughter wants to marry you.’ I said: ‘Sorry I already have a girlfriend.

“He said: ‘No, no but I have others, more beautiful.

“Everyone was laughing. The pity is we couldn’t take pictures because the flash hurt his eyes so I only have one…and it doesn’t even look like me,”

He recalls how he met the former South African president.

“It’s hard to describe,” recalls Boeteng, now playing for Las Palmas.

“It’s just joy. Mandela was in prison for 27 years just because he stood up for his rights and he sits there and has no anger inside.

“He should be angry with the whole world, but he wasn’t. He’s calm, just there in his little seat saying hello to everybody. He makes you feel calm. He was shining. It’s like a movie. It’s like an angel sitting there.”