Germany's most important player of his generation — four Bundesliga titles and a World Cup Final runner-up.
Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz, East Germany in 1976. His career produced four Bundesliga titles, five DFB-Pokals and two Champions League Finals — losing to Real Madrid with Bayer Leverkusen in 2002 and to Manchester United with Chelsea in 2008. He was named German Footballer of the Year six times. He won the World Cup Golden Ball in 2002 as Germany reached the final against Brazil — scoring the semifinal winner against South Korea. Chelsea paid £8 million for him in 2006 as his marquee signing. His combination of physicality, technical skill and goalscoring from deep midfield made him the definitive German midfielder of the 2000s. An ankle injury sustained in the DFB-Pokal Final just days before the 2010 World Cup denied him a final chance at a major international trophy. He led Germany's renaissance as a footballing nation after the flat years of the late 1990s — his leadership bridging the gap between the Matthäus generation and the 2014 World Cup winners.
Bundesliga 4x
Career Honours
- Bundesliga 4x
- DFB-Pokal 5x
- Champions League finalist 2x
- World Cup runner-up (2002)
- German Footballer of Year 6x