Middlesbrough have Jaap Stam to thank for securing £5m Boro icon | OneFootball

Middlesbrough had a telephone call to thank for a signing who would go on to become one of their 21st century legends.

A telephone call from an international teammate helped to secure Middlesbrough a player who would go on to serve them with distinction for six years, including the first major trophy in the club's history and a European final.

By 2002, George Boateng was already an established Premier League midfielder, having started in the Netherlands with Excelsior and Feyenoord, before moving to England to play for Coventry City and Aston Villa.

But by the end of the 2001/02 season, Boateng was looking to move on from Villa Park. A possible move to Liverpool hadn't come to anything, and Fulham were dragging their heels over signing him too.

Jaap Stam phone call set George Boateng on the path to the Riverside Stadium

There was also interest in Boateng from Middlesbrough, but according to an interview that he gave to BBC Radio Tees in 2021, he was uncertain at first over whether it would be a good move.

But he had a connection. Making his international debut for the Netherlands a year earlier had introduced him to Jaap Stam, who'd worked with Middlesbrough's manager Steve McClaren when he was Alex Ferguson's assistant at Manchester United.

According to Boateng, Stam "spoke really highly of McClaren", and that was enough to persuade the player that it was worth flying to Teesside to talk to him.

Speaking via BirminghamLive, Boateng said: "I have to be honest, I didn't fancy coming to Boro at the start because when we played Middlesbrough I felt the games were really easy for me because when we played Middlesbrough with Villa it was always a comfortable win.

"I was really not looking forward to signing for Middlesbrough but then Steve McClaren rang my agent and my agent said Steve said, 'Just come up for a chat, there's no harm in meeting me and having a chat about the club etc. Then you can make up your mind'.

"There was interest at the time from Liverpool and Fulham. The Liverpool deal fell through. Fulham were delaying things and Middlesbrough were the only team in the end that were calling every day. I spoke to Jaap Stam because Steve (McClaren) had left Manchester United and Jaap and I were in the national team. I spoke to Stam and said, 'How's Steve? Is he good? Is he a good coach? What's he like?'

"He spoke really highly of McClaren and said he has a little bit more Dutch style with possession and passing and I was like, 'Ah, OK. It might not be a bad thing to go and speak to Steve and listen to what he's got to say."

Once in Middlesbrough, the manager did the rest himself, arriving to meet him at the airport and then selling him on the vision of a team that already contained Gareth Southgate, Ugo Ehiogu and Alen Boksic.

"Then I remember flying into Tees Airport and, normally, I expect a scout or an administrative person to collect me from the airport. But no. It was Steve McClaren himself who was waiting and I thought, 'Oh, that's nice. That's very, very nice'," Boateng continued.

Boateng said McClaren told him that Middlesbrough were going to play European football in the next two years: "He said, 'Yeah, that's the plan. If you sign for Middlesbrough, we can attract other players, and we can play European football in two years'."

He signed for Boro in the summer of 2002 for a reported fee of £5m.

Boateng became a Middlesbrough icon over the next six years

Boateng was part of one of Middlesbrough's finest ever teams.

In 2004, they won the League Cup, beating Bolton 2-1 in the final. It was not only the first trophy in the club's history; it also meant that they came good on Steve McClaren's promise of European football in two years.

They got to the Round of 16 of the UEFA Cup the following season before losing to Sporting CP on away goals, and the following season they equaled their second-highest ever League finish, in 7th. This was enough to qualify them for the UEFA Cup again, and this time they reached the final before losing to Sevilla.

Boateng eventually left the club in 2008 for Hull City, having made 181 Premier League appearances for Middlesbrough over the previous six seasons.

As uncertain as he was when he first heard of their interest, he went on to become a Boro legend; and it was all because of one conversation with Jaap Stam.