Tottenham Hotspur fans may know little about the 20-year-old for whom their club has just shelled out over £5 million, though Kevin Prince Boateng has made quite a splash in Germany since making his debut for Hertha Berlin in August 2005.

Though not yet an international, Boateng has already been voted the best young player in the Bundesliga. In fact he could have played at the last World Cup, as his father is Ghanaian. Ratomir Dujkovic was keen to call the player into the Ghana squad for last summer's tournament, though the youngster, whose mother is German, opted to wait to play for the country of his birth.

Despite his tender years, Boateng has a powerful physique, standing 6'1" and with pace to burn. Those who tend to look at a player's robustness and strength to decide how they will fare in the Premiership need not worry, though a susceptibility to injuries might prove a problem.

In terms of a comparison with other players in the Premiership, Boateng could perhaps be likened in style to an elongated Nigel Reo-Coker, only with a greater ability on the ball. Though a box to box midfielder, it is in the opposition half where Boateng comes into his own, unlike his namesake at Middlesbrough, George.

He has an eye for a defence-splitting pass, an ability to construct attacks, and moves the ball well. He is certainly not averse to taking players on, and has an array of tricks at his disposal. Shooting is not his strong-point, though Dimitar Berbatov and Darren Bent are unlikely to complain with a few more passes coming their way instead. Should he find the back of the net, watch out for a bizarre hip-hop dance routine to follow.

One area where Boateng certainly rivals Reo-Coker is in the attitude stakes. A self-styled "ghetto kid," having grown up in the tough Berlin district of Wedding, he is certainly not short on confidence. When asked in the autumn of 2005, just after having made his first appearance for the club, whether he could imagine playing for Germany at the 2010 World Cup, Boateng's indignant reply was: "Why 2010?" He was not thinking further ahead to 2014, but instead to the 2006 tournament, which was then only seven months away.

Boateng has already posed as a model for a fashion company, showing off his 13 tattoos on both arms, and many have questioned whether he has the necessary attitude to become a genuinely top class performer.

"The problem is, that Kevin-Prince Boateng has been hearing since his early childhood what an exceptional talent he is," says Spiegel magazine.

"Quite simply, Boateng has hardly played a single excellent game in 42 Bundesliga appearances," adds Der Tagesspiegel.

The problem with Boateng, in the eyes of many, is that he plays for the gallery. Once Brazilian playmaker Marcelinho had left Hertha to accept a lucrative deal with Turkish outfit Trabzonspor, there was a vacuum in the hearts of the club's fans for a new player to worship - someone who had the ability to do the unexpected and thrill the crowds.

Boateng thought he was that man. Or at least it certainly appeared as such. Like Joe Cole before Jose Mourinho arrived at Chelsea, he looked to bedazzle opponents with neat footwork, and rarely played a simple sidefoot pass if the opportunity for a cheeky backheel was there. The team did not benefit from his undoubted talent, and indeed even supporters began to get frustrated at him. He would also certainly have been called up by Germany coach Joachim Loew to the national squad by now had he displayed a little more consistency and maturity for his club side.

Martin Jol has a job on his hands to coax the best out of Boateng, and will need to make sure his player does not get sucked into the pitfalls that have damaged the careers of other promising young players earning vast sums of money.

Opinion is split in the German capital over how Boateng will fare at Spurs. Some believe that he will not have the mental strength to withstand the stresses and strains and new pressures that come with moving away from the city of your birth to another country.

Others believe the transfer is exactly what the player needs. For the moment, he is a nobody in England. He is starting from scratch, and, for the first time in his career, will have to prove himself in a country where nobody will remind him how he was a level above all the others as he rose through the German youth teams.

He will also have to prove that his all-round game merits a place in the centre of the Spurs midfield. This is a midfield, let us not forget, including Didier Zokora, Jermaine Jenas, Tom Huddlestone amongst others. His attacking style would appear to put him in direct competition with Jenas, working on the logic that one of Zokora and Huddlestone will almost always be employed in the holding role.

Whatever the case, it is with great interest that German football observers as well as Spurs fans will follow the progress of Boateng. He has more than enough ability to shine in the Premiership, and on talent alone is ahead of Jenas. Now, however, he must make sure he disproves the doubters back home, and converts himself into a genuine team performer.