Former Sheffield United academy player named as contestant in Winter Love Island 2020

Mike Boateng, aged 24, who is now a police officer, joined Sheffield United’s academy in the summer of 2013 in his bid to make it as a professional footballer.

Taken on as a third-year scholar, Mike was then loaned out to non-league AFC Emley that October.

The midfielder was too old to play for United’s youth team and with competition for games with the U21s high, he was loaned out for more playing time.

He failed to make the grade as a pro and trained to become a police officer.

Mike, from London, has now been selected as a contestant on ITV2’s popular dating programme Love Island, which airs on Sunday, January 12, with seven women and five men set to move into a villa in South Africa looking for love.

He said his new year’s resolution is to ‘find a serious relationship’.

“I’m going in to the villa to find love. If that means stepping on a few toes, burning a few bridges and finding the love of my life, I’m willing to do it,” he said.

Commenting on his footballing days, he said: “I know a few footballer friends from my football days.

“Dominic Calvert-Lewin played with me at Sheffield United.”

His brother, Samuel, competed on The Apprentice in 2016 as he fought to become Lord Alan Sugar’s business partner.