Germans would not want soccer star Boateng as neighbour, politician says

BERLIN (Reuters) - People in Germany would not want soccer star Jerome Boateng, born in Berlin from a Ghanaian father, as their neighbour, Alexander Gauland, vice chair of anti-immigration party, Alternative for Germany, said in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung newspaper on Sunday. "People find him good as a football player but they don't want a Boateng as their neighbour," Gauland told the Sunday edition of the newspaper. Alternative for Germany did not immediately respond to a Reuters' request to comment. The German Football Association was not immediately available to comment. The chair of Alternative for Germany, Frauke Petry, in comments to be published in the Bild newspaper on Monday, said: "Mr Gauland cannot remember whether he made these comments. "I would like to apologise to Mr Boateng anyway for the impression that was created." Interior minister Thomas de Maizier, in comments to Bild, said every German should be happy to have Boateng as their teammate, fellow citizen or neighbour. Bayern Munich defender Boateng is a stalwart of Germany's national football team and is likely to feature in Germany's starting eleven at next month's European Championship, along with third-generation Turkish-German winger Mesut Özil and other players with non-exclusively German backgrounds. Disenchantment with the chancellor Angela Merkel's welcoming stance towards refugees helped to propel the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany to strong results in regional elections this year. Days earlier, supporters of German anti-Islam group Pegida criticised a confectioner's decision to print images of non-white soccer players on its chocolate bars instead of the usual picture of a blond-haired, blue-eyed boy. (Reporting By Francesco Canepa. Editing by Jane Merriman)