Michael Ballack is the captain of the German national football team, and one of the most important players and top goal scorers in the history of Germany. At 33 years old Ballack is still at the top of his game, and even though he has already won almost everything with his football clubs as well as on a personal level, he is still missing the World Cup trophy from his impressive awards collection. Michael Ballack has been selected twice for the FIFA World Cup Team of the Tournament in 2002 and 2006, and Germany finished in second and third place respectively in these tournaments. Coming to South Africa the Germans are confident that this time their national team is even better, and their only goal is to win the World Cup competition for the fourth time in history.
Michael Ballack started playing football at just 7 years old, quickly advanced to the German Bundesliga and won the title with Kaiserslautern in 1998. But it was at Bayer Leverkusen that Ballack made his breakthrough and was selected as the German Footballer of the Year. In 2002 and after his impressive performances in the World Cup competition, Michael Ballack was transferred to Bayern Munich where he had a brilliant career winning the Bundesliga another three times along with numerous other honours and titles.
Even though Ballack was one of the top goal scorers for Munich he was heavily criticised for saving his energy when playing in important Champions League matches with the team. This led Ballack to request a transfer, and in 2006 he moved to London to play in the English Premiership and Chelsea.
Right from the start Michael Ballack felt at home with Chelsea, was given the jersey number 13 (that he has worn in every team during his entire career), and happily stated that he would like to finish professional football playing for the English club. Even though Ballack had many ups and downs in Chelsea, he has always managed to score many vital goals in crucial games, establishing himself as one of the key players during all four seasons in the Premier League.
Maybe Michael Ballack is getting older and slowly losing his starting line-up position with Chelsea, but he has already scored 4 goals for Germany during the 2010 World Cup qualifiers and is definitely coming to South Africa to win. And Ballack has always been one of the best players in every World Cup tournament he has participated so far – this time will not be different. Germany is once again one of the favourite teams to win the trophy having a mix of young talents as well as experienced players, and their captain is leading the way. South Africa will be the last World Cup and last chance for Michael Ballack to achieve international success, so we should be expecting even more from him this time.
Michael Ballack photos
Michael Ballack videos
Top 10 goals video of Michael Ballack
Michael Ballack video compilation, Best of the best plays and skills video
Michael Ballack Chelsea video, top goals with Chelsea
Michael Ballack Germany video, the German captain in a photo tribute video
Best goals of Michael Ballack video
