Meet the released ex-Sheffield Wednesday man using Twitter to get his career back on track

It’s a piercing sound that can deliver a feeling of dread for so many unfortunate young men to have recently been let go from a job.

He may be unemployed for now but for Boateng, a 23-year-old footballer desperate to find his next opportunity after his release from Sheffield Wednesday earlier this year, it’s the sound of another chance to work.

The defender played the majority of last season with the Owls’ under-23 side and spent a great deal of the campaign training with Darren Moore’s first team.

But now each day is spent hitting the pavements, reporting to the gym and keeping himself motivated.

Right now, somewhere in the region of 12,000 boys are playing football for the academy of a professional club.

Less than one per cent of those boys will play first team football at a first team level and Boateng, who also spent four years at Bradford City before stints at Farsley Celtic and The New Saints in Wales, is determined to ensure he fights his way out of that statistic.

Alongside a commitment to his training programme, the youngster has advertised his availability on social media, a message on Twitter asking for clubs to come forward receiving the going viral over the weekend.

“Every day I treat it as if I’m still at a full-time club,” he told The Star with an impressive air of positivity. “I get up early and use the programmes I was given by Wednesday, I go for runs, I go to the gym.

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“I have trained with a non-league club too because sometimes it’s better to have that variety and train with other people.

“I want to play as many games as possible. In an ideal word, I’d like to play National League or National League North. Of course it would be great to sign for a league club but at this stage of my career I just want to play as many games as possible.”

The defender’s time with Wednesday was short but was an experience he enjoyed, initially brought in by Lee Bullen for an extended trial spell before he was officially signed in December last year. Within a month of his signing, Bullen was at Ayr United.

Neil Thompson took over the club’s under-23 side and was the man who had to have the difficult conversation to release Boateng in March, an early call designed to allow him and eight young colleagues the opportunity to seek out trial periods at other league clubs before the season was out.

“I was on trial at Wednesday for like two months before they signed me and had to work hard for it, which I enjoyed,” he said.

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“My contract was always until the end of the season [2022/23], though they had an extension option which obviously they didn’t take up.

“We all knew it was coming, we never knew a date or anything and one day at training Thommo told us we were going to have meetings after the session.

“It was at the training ground in the office, all done one-to-one.

“I didn’t know whether I’d be released or not. It felt 50/50 to me. I’d spent so much time training with the first team and training with them more often than not.

“I wanted to feature in some [first team] games, but because of the position the first team were in in terms of chasing promotion that didn’t really work in my favour in terms of being able to show what I could do.

“When I didn’t feature in the first team at all, given my age in being one of the oldest in the under-23s, to be honest it didn’t come as the biggest shock in the world.”

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Boateng’s tweet has received huge attention over the weekend, raising more than 500 retweets.

Clubs have been in contact with the defender – who can also play in midfield – and the Leeds-born youngster is hopeful the message can lead to an opportunity that leads to a route back into the game, be it at professional or semi-professional level.

“I want to try anything and as much as I can to get my name out there and make clubs aware that I’m available,” he said. “Clubs will be looking for a right-back and I’m on a free transfer.

“I was with Altrincham a few weeks ago but we weren’t able to get a deal over the line. If I’d got there earlier in pre-season I think I might have been able to earn a contract but these things happen.

“Someone suggested I should send a tweet out. I didn’t think much of it but when I did think about it, I realised I couldn’t lose anything from it, I could only gain. I put it out there to see what could happen with it and it’s done well online, plenty of people have seen it.

“People understand it I think and it’s had a good response. I’ve had one or two chats off the back of it and whether it’s a case of being able to go and train with a club or signing for a club, I don’t mind.

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“There’s been some EvoStick clubs, Conference North sides. The response has been great.”

What lies in wait for Kwame Boateng? That remains to be seen. What is for sure is that the former Sheffield Wednesday man is doing everything he can to ensure he doesn’t become another piece of the statistic.