ATHENS — Like many on the Georgia team, JJ Hanne had a favorite football player growing up.

He just happened to play the European version of the sport.

“Jerome Boateng,” Hanne said with a smile when speaking to reporters on Monday.

Boateng, like Hanne, was born in Berlin, Germany. Boateng rose to prominence as a center back for Bayern Munich and the German national team during the 2010s. In addition to being a starter and defensive anchor on Germany’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad, he also won the German league title in nine of his 10 seasons with the club.

He’s a winning player, something Hanne clearly is for the Georgia program.

Like so many in Germany, Hanne grew up playing soccer. His first exposure with American football was as a cornerback. But it was never something Hanne was all that serious about, in part because of age requirements to play the game in Germany.

He also had to beg his mother to let him play.

“I just begged her, really, and then my brother came in and did the same thing for me,” Hanne said. “And then she asked me if I really wanted to do it, and I told her yes. And then she just made me promise that I would never quit. And I promised her that, so then she let me go.”

To play football, Hanne left Berlin and went all the way to California to better develop his game. He played for Santa Margarita Catholic School in Southern California.

In order to show his mother, who still lives in Germany, what his day-to-day looks like, he had her download Snapchat. While it’s not easy to teach your parents how to use social media, it’s just as difficult to not be able to have them watch you shine for one of the best teams in college football.

When Georgia beat TCU in Los Angeles to win the 2023 National Championship Game, Hanne had made up his mind that Georgia is where he wanted to play his college football. He’d have to continue to work hard and impress at camps to do so.

Hanne still remembers the day he first camped at Georgia in an effort to earn an offer. He couldn’t sleep the night before.

“I didn’t get offered right after the camp. So I kind of was like, am I going to get the offer? Was I good enough, thinking everything through, if I did a good enough job,” Hanne said. “Then after the tour we got, I got the offer. Yes, I knew I wanted to come here, I knew I wanted to play for Coach Scott because I felt it when I walked into the indoor.”

Hanne eventually committed to Georgia in July of 2024 as a member of the 2025 recruiting cycle. Most saw Justus Terry and Elijah Griffin as the major prizes in that recruiting class.

But Hanne has been a gem for Georgia, earning his way into the defensive line rotation in each of his first two seasons. He appeared in all 14 games last season and has seven tackles through Georgia’s first four games this season.

“JJ is a wonderful kid,” Georgia coach Kirby Smart said of Hanne. “One of the most positive, optimistic, hardest-working, cover-down, run-to-the-ball, play with the right energy, never walks on the field for a day, never a day that he’s discouraged. He’s always got a smile on his face. I think his experience in life puts him so much further ahead of other kids who, they might take for granted an opportunity like this. He does not.”

Hanne grew up playing a different kind of football at a young age, but Smart actually believes that may have helped in his transition to the sport.

Especially when Hanne plays with the requisite toughness, which isn’t always on display in the European version of it.

“Just basic footwork and basic balance and body control things, which is pretty important playing center back, which is also extremely important playing defensive line here,” Hanne said. “Getting bumped every play, so you’ve got to be able to stay on your feet.”

Hanne’s feet are currently a long way from home. He still hopes to be able to have his mother come to America to see him play for Georgia.

Yet Hanne is also deeply in love and appreciative of all that Georgia has given him. That shines through with both his personality and his play on the field.

“When we had that practice game kind of in Sanford Stadium, and I saw the turnout, and I saw how big game day really is, because I had never really been to a college football game other than my OV,” Hanne said. “Just seeing that in person and taking it in and being on the field, it kind of felt movie-like, to be honest.”