My Villa Moment: George Boateng

Aston Villa. A club which has seen over 1,000 individuals pull on the distinctive claret and blue shirt. A club which has seen countless players create unforgettable moments which will be cherished forever.

As part of our 150th anniversary celebrations, we are catching up with a host of former Villans, and asking them to recall their favourite moment from their time at Villa Park.

It could be a goal, a match, or the moment they signed. Whichever memory stands out to them, while they were representing our famous club.

Our series continues with Dutch midfield lynchpin George Boateng (Legacy Number: 737).

Arriving from Coventry City in the summer of 1999, Boateng would make a total of 135 appearances in claret and blue over the course of three years, before going on to spend six years with Middlesbrough. 

His endeavour and craft in the midfield engine room made him a popular figure among the Villa Park faithful, winning the Intertoto Cup in 2001 having picked up an FA Cup runners-up medal a year prior. 

And his favourite memory as a Villan was one of just five goals he netted for the club - coming in a 2-1 victory over Leeds United at Elland Road in 2000. 

John Gregory's side visited West Yorkshire just two days before Christmas, looking to end a run of four-consecutive Premier League draws. 

And that they did. Gareth Southgate, whose double had won the game for Villa in the corresponding fixture the season before, again struck against the Whites, giving Villa a first-half advantage. 

Then, with just two minutes of normal time remaining, Boateng made sure of the points with what would turn out to be the winning goal, with Jonathan Woodgate reducing the arrears for Leeds in stoppage time. 

A lightning counter attack from the visitors saw Paul Merson drive towards the edge of the area, before finding Boateng's lung-busting run with a slid pass just out of the reach of Rio Ferdinand.

The former Holland international did the rest, finishing past Paul Robinson to – as he describes – wrap up an early Christmas present for the travelling supporters in attendance. 

Here is My Villa Moment, in George Boateng's own words…

My favourite Villa moment was an away win against Leeds United in December 2000. I scored the second goal in a 2-1 win, and I remember Gareth Southgate got the first.

We went there twice, and I remember also winning there when Gareth scored both goals, in 1999/2000.

I remember that one too, because we were 1-0 up, and then we came in at half-time, and in the dressing room, we had discussed keeping them quiet.

Within five minutes, Harry Kewell had scored a stunner from 30 yards. All of a sudden, the game was on, but we still managed to win 2-1.

But then, the following year, we went there again, that was the 2000/2001 season.

I chose this moment as my favourite because Leeds United had this vibrant, youthful, full of energy, quality squad, and the football they were playing was just very, very good.

But equally, we at the time, with the squad we had and the players we had, had a good mixture. Young, talented, quick and really good footballers in the team – like Gareth Barry, Darius Vassell, myself, Southgate, Mark Delaney and Dion Dublin.

When we had to go to Leeds, we matched them up. We knew it was going to be so tough, especially with their home crowd, the energy they bring, the loudness, so we were prepared.

I do remember that it was very cold, and you had to run around to stay warm, otherwise the game would have passed you by.

But we were really looking forward to it, and nothing disappointed. When the game started, it was exactly what we thought it would be – Leeds United really pushing us, trying to find spaces and gaps to penetrate through the lines and in pockets.

I remember having so many difficulties in midfield, because I couldn’t find offensive passes, and every time we had the ball, they were on top of us.

It was literally a case of winning the ball, and if you can get one or two passes together to just ease pressure, that would help. But in the whole first half, we couldn’t.

Leeds were so dominant in how they were attacking and what they were doing, but we were still staying in the game.

Before I get to my goal, I remember Gareth scoring the opener, and we couldn’t believe it. We wanted to celebrate together but Gareth was surrounded by players. All of us were surrounding him and almost suffocating him celebrating, because we were so relieved and so happy.

It was just before half-time, so when we went in, we knew when we came back out there would be a lot of pressure from Leeds, trying to score within the first 10 to 15 minutes because they knew if they could manage that, they would probably end up still winning the game.

So, our gameplan in the second half, with a 1-0 lead, was to shut up shop, try not to concede, and hang in there, because they would have to come out more, and that would leave spaces for us to attack.

I remember Paul Merson was playing just in front of me, and he was brilliant. Honestly, what a guy. I wish he would have come to Villa earlier, so we could have played longer together when he was younger. He was in his 30s by the time he arrived.

But I loved playing with him. He made my job so easy. Whenever I won the ball, all I had in my mind was: ‘Where’s Merse?’ If I could find him, the better it would have been, and the easier for me.

So, the first half was tough, but even in the second half, the first 20 minutes were so hard. All I was doing was defending, defending, defending. In my head, I was just thinking: “You know what? They will come more, and the longer it stays 1-0 to us, I will get a counter, and I’ll go forward.”

John Gregory used to go really mad at me whenever I went forward, because he used to feel insecure whenever I left the ‘6’ position. But I had lots of energy. In my head, I always felt comfortable making forward runs and getting into the opposition box, and if I didn’t get the ball, I also felt I had enough legs, speed and power to be back in the ‘6’ pocket within three seconds.

The coaches didn’t think like that, and I could always see them out of the corner of my eye on the sideline, thinking: “Oh no, where is he going?!” But I always felt I had to try and score a goal, as well as making sure I built up our play and stopped the opposition from playing. If I could contribute to our attacking play, even better.

So, we got to 88 or 89 minutes, really late in the game, and Leeds had an attack from the left side. Robbie Keane anded up getting a shot away and David James saved, and then the ball landed on the edge of our box.

All our players were positioned so perfectly for a counter. Merse was in an advanced position. I was in the centre on the edge of the box, and I remember Darius Vassell had stayed up as well.

It was a perfect clearance into Merse, and that was the trigger for me. As soon as the ball went to Merse and he controlled it, I was off. No-one was stopping me. Merse took the touch, dribbled what must have been 25 to 30 yards with the ball, at full pace.

I’m trying to catch up, as he’s ahead of me, but what Merse did really well, when he got close to the edge of the box, was he waited and drew one of the Leeds defenders to him, and then you can see at the last minute, I just come into picture.

Merse knew all along what he was going to do, and I knew exactly what he was doing to do. He dragged the defender to him, I arrived, and he played the ball with the outside of his right foot. He never used his left foot. Never.

He played it into my path with the outside of his right boot. I had Darius Vassell on the right with me, free as a bird. Because of my pace, I took a touch which took me inside the box.

Paul Robinson was the ‘keeper. The goal was wide open. I could take my pick. Chip it, go around him, but the easiest finish was just to slide it across the near post.

It went in, and the celebrations were just fantastic. I remember Vassell running to me, Merse running to me, Jlloyd Samuel, bless his soul, and we were all standing together, like: “We did it.”

It was the most perfect away performance you could imagine. Soaking up pressure, scoring a goal, waiting for them to come and as soon as you get a little bit of space to counter, you go.

Nobody tracked me. In the games, players don’t normally think about the ‘6’ joining the attacks to score the goal, but every game I played for Villa in the ‘6’ position, the later the game went on, I was always looking to get forward, because most teams don’t think about it.

For me, it was the most breathtaking, away performance and counter attack. I remember watching the game on Match of the Day, and the commentator, it might have been John Motson, but I can’t remember, said: “Boateng ran all these miles in the game, but this was the only time he made the effective run to contribute.”

I was really pleased with it. For me, it was one of the best away games I played for Villa.

I have great memories at Villa. I don’t know what it was, but I just loved playing at Villa Park. The first time I went and played there with Coventry, I was really blown away by the stadium and the culture.

The pitch is massive, and I always said to myself, from the first day I visited: “I want to play for this club. This club is meant for me.”

When I got there, I had a bit of a difficult start. The first three months didn’t go too well, because the team was changing, and the manager was trying to find the best positions for every player. I was signed as a right-winger, but we weren’t getting results in a 4-3-3 or 4-2-3-1 formation. Things changed for the better when we went to a back three.

Everybody found a position they could play. The back three was Southgate, Gareth Barry and Ugo Ehiogu. A midfield five of Mark Delaney, Steve Stone, myself, Ian Taylor and Lee Hendrie or Paul Merson in front. Alan Wright or Alan Thompson at left-wing back. Strikers, Vassell, Julian Joachim with pace, Dion Dublin there, and that evolved later with Juan Pablo Ángel.

Maybe I didn’t realise it fully at the time, but that dressing room was full of real characters. It must have been so hard for the manager John Gregory to manage all these mavericks in the dressing room. Everyone was different.

That formation was so good for all of us, and everyone knew their job. I remember playing in the Intertoto Cup in 2001/02, which we won, to qualify for Europe.

We had started in the Premier League really well, unfortunately getting knocked out of the Intertoto Cup the season before by Celta de Vigo. Honestly, if I look back, the one thing that really hurt me was that we never quite managed to conquer Europe. The squad we had was more than good enough to play in Europe.

The reason why I’m saying that is because I left Villa to go to Middlesbrough, we had a similar squad, but we did it at Boro. We got to a quarter-final, and then the final the following year. That was achievable at Villa at the time, but things happened, changes of manager, and things were disrupted.

That’s one thing, when I look back, we underachieved on, with what we had.

We also had the FA Cup Final, which was actually going to be my favourite moment. In Holland, I always watched all the FA Cup games, and I never dreamed of making an FA Cup Final as a young boy starting at Feyenoord.

When we got to the final and didn’t win, I was in tears. Even my agent and accountant were in tears in the stands. We all became so emotional because there was so much hard work went into it, and we were so, so close.

To lose the final by one goal was really heartbreaking, and when we came back to Birmingham, the fans came out in the city to greet us, because they felt we had given absolutely everything as a team, and just fallen short.

I couldn’t choose that as my moment, because it was also a failure on the day. The Leeds United game was an unbelievable game. A perfect day.

I have so many fond memories, and every time I come back to the club, I just love the place.

I always knew I had huge potential. At the time I was at Feyenoord, I had interest from Juventus, from Udinese, interest in Holland, and then Deportivo de La Coruña came, they were in the Champions League.

So, I knew I was destined to have a good career, but I never knew it would be in the Premier League. When the opportunity came to go to England, that’s when I released there was an opportunity for me to go far.

But when I was in Holland, I never dreamed of playing in the Premier League, and playing 384 Premier League games. Every club I played for, I was always one of the first players in the starting line-up, which when I look back, is insane.

As a young boy growing up in Rotterdam, even to make Feyenoord’s first team was against the odds, nearly impossible. They had so much money at the time, and could buy all the best foreign players they wanted to.

The Dutch league was so much stronger at the time. You had the likes of Dennis Bergkamp, Patrick Kluivert, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Boudewijn Zenden, Michael Reiziger, Frank de Boer, Ronald de Boer, Phillip Cocu, Jaap Stam, all these players in the Dutch league when I was playing. You can see how tough that league was at the time, because they came across to England and became top, top players.

I was very, very lucky, in the sense the opportunity came, and I grabbed it. I knew once I had the opportunity, there was no looking back.

You have to have that belief and confidence in your ability that you can do it, because then when the opportunity comes, you just grab it. You work your socks off and you never look back.

For me, the reason I chose this game is because every time I look back and see the footage, it just puts a big smile on my face.

Nobody expected me to be the goalscorer, or the type of player I was on that day, in the sense I just stopped the opposition from playing – with my energy and defensive work – but also, I could play.

When I look back, every time I got the ball, the opposition were thinking: “Merse is the best player, but the heartbeat is this kid here. We need to try and stop him from dominating the game.”

That’s what I loved doing. I loved dominating the game by being invisible, going unnoticed. I dominate the game, I win first and second balls, I break up play and also start the attacks, but no-one notices.

But because we had so many good players, if you stopped me, you still had Merse to deal with, or Dublin to deal with. We had a really good team at the time.

This memory ranks really highly in my career, especially during my Villa days. I didn’t score many goals for Villa. I remember scoring at Southampton as well on the Monday Night Football, and I got Man of the Match, but I liked the Leeds one.

It was almost like entering the lion’s den. We knew would be tested. How strong are you mentally? How can you cope with all this adversity in one game? Ninety minutes of you being under stress, under pressure constantly. Can you cope, and not make mistakes, and still win the game? That was why I have chosen this moment as my favourite Villa moment, and hopefully the fans who came with us to Leeds that day will agree with me.

I look back with great memories. The changing room, as you can imagine, was always full of laughter. There was never a dull moment. Never.