Barcelona signed Kelvin Prince Boateng due to his "experience," club technical secretary Eric Abidal has said.

Abidal, in justifying why the Spanish Giants opted for Kelvin, revealed they needed someone "who could handle the weight of our games."

“We are happy to have signed him”, Abidal said in a press conference on Monday.

“We were looking for an experienced player who could handle the weight of our games. He has plenty of experience, he will help us to win trophies”.
“Boateng has plenty of personality and that’s exactly what we needed. When we sold Munir we immediately called Boateng and his agent. We wanted a player with no problems to settle in well."

Boateng, who featured for Ghana in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, became the obvious choice for Barcelona after a serious boardroom deliberation.
Club Coach Ernesto Valverde's first choice was Carlos Vela.
However certain people in the boardroom were against the idea due to the cost of a temporary solution. Vela, too, is also approaching the end of his competitive career.

At that time there were only three names on the shortlist. Carlos Vela, who hasn't liked by the sporting department. Morata, who was expensive and complicated. And lastly there was Cedric Bakambu, who had previously played in LaLiga for Villarreal but didn't have the green light from his Chinese club.

Suddenly Boateng's name was presented to Valverde. It was a deal much easier to pull off than the others but the coach had his doubts. He wasn't sure if Boateng would adapt to his style and didn't know how well he'd been performing in Italy either.

The signing of Boateng came as a surprised to many but the club legend believes he is the best option.

"We’ve been thinking of many players and we think Boateng is the right one for us”.

When asked about Ajax starlet Frankie de Jong, who is strongly wanted by both Barcelona and PSG, Abidal went brief, saying the club will have to wait

“You shouldn’t ask me, we like him and it’s clear but we have to wait. I can’t say anything else”.

During his first press conference with the club, Boateng said that he is sorry for leaving Sassuolo adding, however, that there was no way he could snub a move to Barcelona.