Jérôme and Kevin Prince Boateng are two of the world's most elite soccer players on the world's most elite stage, the FIFA World Cup. One brother, Jérôme, chose to play for the land of his mother: Germany. Kevin-Prince chose instead to play for the land of his ancestors, the country from which his father emigrated: Ghana. Meanwhile, their older brother, George, who taught his younger brothers everything they know, is now a father and a musician after spending what would have been his prime soccer years in jail. Three brothers, three dramatically different fates.

Prince Boateng immigrated to Berlin from Sunyani, Ghana in 1981. He married a German woman and the couple settled in Wedding, which at that point was one of the rougher areas in Berlin. George Boateng was born shortly thereafter. In the early years, it was just the three of them, and George spent much his time teaching himself how to play soccer. "George had it harder than the rest of us," said Jérôme in the best-selling book about the three, "Die Brüder Boateng: Drei deutsche Karrieren." "No one taught him anything, he had to learn for himself what was right and wrong [on the soccer field]." Three years later, Kevin-Prince was born and shortly thereafter their father, Prince Boateng, left their mother for another woman: Jerome's mother, Martina. Jérôme was born a year after Kevin-Prince.

"Kevin was Jérôme's idol," Martina Boateng told Der Spiegel about their early relationship. Martina and her son had settled in Charlottenburg, Berlin after Prince left them, too, when Jérôme was five. The three boys would meet regularly and spent much of their time perfecting their soccer skills. George taught the younger boys the finer points of handling a soccer ball, and both boys looked up to him. Still, it was evident even early on that their paths would split.

"I got into a lot of trouble. Fights, probation. I had a short fuse, and I was a bad role model for Kevin," George Boateng said of their upbringing. His "short-fuse" was responsible for his troubled high-school years. Drinking, smoking, violence – eventually his exploits landed him in jail - an experience he considers a wakeup call. There are two choices when you go to jail, George recently told a reporter from the Berliner Kurier. Either you end up worse than you were before, or you stop your bad behavior completely. For George it wasn't a choice at all; he came out of jail in control of his temper and ready to start a new life. Ten years later, it may be bittersweet for him looking at the success of the brothers he taught, but he says he is happy just to cheer for them.