Middlesbrough legend George Boateng is on the look out for his first management job, saying he feels ready to take the reins of his own club after serving a 12-year apprenticeship as a coach.

Boateng moved straight into coaching after hanging up his boots in 2013 and was most recently part of the coaching staff at Coventry City with Mark Robins. However, when Robins was last week appointed Stoke City boss, the Ghana-born midfielder was not part of the coaching set-up at the bet365 Stadium, with Boateng instead seeking his own opportunity as a head coach.

Boateng is understood to feel ready to step up to the main role after learning a lot during various roles over the last 12 years. He's understood to have held talks with numerous clubs in recent months as he seeks his first management opportunity. He was offered one role in the Iranian Premier League but turned that down.

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Speaking in an interview with Tribal Football recently, the Boro favourite said: "I have been coaching now for 12 years and I have to say that it has been a great learning curve, a good journey filled with great moments. I have been an assistant in the last few roles that I have had and right now I feel that I am much more advanced as a coach and that I have learned a lot now and evolved myself and I am ready now to take my own team whether that would be in Australia, Europe, US because I don’t mind and I am up for a challenge as long as the club has the same philosophy as mine.

"It has been a journey for me until now for sure. I started as a coach in the club that I stopped playing in Malaysia (Kelantan). In that time I realised that only 10% is staying on the grass and training and 90% is problem-solving. During that time I thought if I wanted to become successful in coaching then I needed to start from the academy at the base.

"I think that if you are a successful player then you will not automatically be a successful coach. That's why I went from the first team environment in Malaysia to the academy of Blackburn Rovers. Then I went to Aston Villa in U18 and U23. That was the foundation of my coaching.

"Then the opportunity came from the Ghana national team to go back to the first-team environment, to qualify for the World Cup. I thought that this is a very good possibility for me. I have done three years of academy development and now is time for me to enter the performance level. We qualified for the World Cup 2022 in Qatar, it was unbelievable for me as a coach to be in the World Cup. I really enjoyed that experience and it made me realize why people speak so highly about tournaments like the World Cup.

“Then the opportunity came with Coventry City which I thought was a really good step up for me regarding my future and where I wanted to be. So coming to Coventry as the first team coach in the Championship was an amazing experience, I loved everything about it and it added something to me as a person but also as a coach.”

In the same interview, Boateng reflected on his playing career, and recalled his time at Boro when asked about his best experience as a player. He said: “For me, the most enjoyable time was clearly my time at Middlesbrough when we had players like Juninho, Southgate, Hasselbank, Viduka, and a lot of other very strong players.

"We won the Carabao Cup, played the UEFA Cup final and with the fans over there at the stadium at the time it was like a dream come true. So yeah that is definitely the best club where I had my most successful period.”