Kevin-Prince Boateng (L) and brother Jerome Boateng (R) who will play for Ghana and Germany, respectively. —Wire Photos

PARIS: It will be a case of brothers in arms for three sets of siblings who will take part in the World Cup in South Africa.

Portsmouth’s Ghanaian international Kevin-Prince Boateng has become a hate figure in Germany since his over-the-top tackle on Michael Ballack in the FA Cup final ruled him out of the finals.

However, the 23-year-old German born midfielder must have expected that at least his half-brother and Germany squad member Jerome would greet him warmly come their group match on June 23rd.

Jerome, 21, has quickly dispelled that notion with not even a brotherly hug or handshake likely to be on offer after.

‘Kevin said: ‘Each has his own family, you have yours, I have mine’,’ Jerome told ‘Hamburger Morgenpost’.

‘That is going too far, it doesn’t matter to me at all now what he does, it doesn’t interest me in the remotest.

‘I want no contact with him whatsoever.’

The split was provoked by Kevin-Prince taking umbrage at his younger sibling not taking his side after the tackle on Ballack and it has escalated ever since.

‘Kevin thinks that I shouldn’t have said that his tackle merited a red card,’ said Jerome, who has joined Manchester City from Hamburg.

‘He thinks that both of us should make our own way in life from now on.

‘I would say that we have been doing just that for some time now.’

Jerome will team up with Ivory Coast’s Kolo Toure at Manchester City, with the latter hoping dearly his brother Yaya can be lured from Barcelona as well.

Whilst the Boatengs appear to have cut their ties irrevocably the Toures enjoy a strong bond formed through their poverty-stricken upbringing in Abidjan.

‘It gives us both more strength knowing that we are there to support each other and watch out for each other,’ said Kolo, who in order for him and his family to be able to eat, sold newspapers and polish people’s shoes at the age of 12.

Kolo and Yaya, who won the 2009 Champions League with Barcelona, have not forgotten their roots either as both regularly send money back to their family – which includes four brothers and two sisters.

However, they know that as much as anything else that what they do at the finals will give some succour to their family.

‘Our family and the whole of our village is really proud of what me and my brother have achieved in football,’ he told the Daily Mail.

The Toures’ bond may have been forged through their days of childhood poverty which is tough enough but Honduras’ Wilson and Johnny Palacios have become even closer on the back of the kidnap and murder of their youngest brother Edwin, who was 16 when he was kidnapped in 2007.

His body was found two years later even though a ransom was paid.

Midfielder Wilson has forged a successful career away from Honduras first with Birmingham City then Wigan and now with Spurs, whilst Johnny, a rugged defender, is reported to be a target for Wigan.

Wilson, though, sums up how they feel when they run out onto the pitch and especially even more so now that they are to appear on the biggest stage of them all – the World Cup finals.

‘Everything we do in football is for him (Edwin) we know that he is watching over us,’ said Wilson. —AFP