Euro 2008 Player Profile: Michael Ballack

Name: Michael Ballack
Team: Germany (Captain)
Group: B; Austria, Croatia, Poland
Caps (Goals): 79 (35) – as of May 15, 2008
DOB: September 26, 1976 (31years old)
Position: Midfield
Club Team: Chelsea

Michael Ballack’s 2007 ankle injury could end up being a good thing for Germany.

The injury, which required three surgeries, and which a lot of people thought would be career-ending, kept him out of the game for eight months. But if his recent form for Chelsea is anything to go by, Ballack is back. And not only that, he’s far more rested than the players who have played an entire season. This could mean that he’s going into the competition relatively fit and ready to play, just in time to help Germany in Euros.

Ballack is a high-scoring, multi-talented midfielder, good with both feet and also with his head. He’s averaged almost one goal for every two games for Germany in the nine years he’s been playing internationally. He’s been captain of the team since 2004.

He was born in the former East Germany and played for German teams until his move to Chelsea in 2006. He came to the team as part of owner Roman Abramovich’s big splash of cash in the summer transfer window — a period that brought in both Ballack and fellow high-paid superstar Andriy Shevchenko. This is a video that a Ballack fan put together around the time of the Chelsea signing:

But it wasn’t a smooth transition. Both Shevchenko and Ballack had a hard time replicating the run of form they’d had with their previous clubs. This led a lot of people to lump them together as Abramovich’s folly. By December, 2006, one newspaper even went as far as calculating the cost of the two superstars: £7,487 per minute, for a grand total of three goals apiece.

When Ballack went out for the first of his ankle surgeries in April, 2007, and then followed it with two more, it looked like the naysayers were right.

But where Shevchenko has never really regained his previous form, the surgery and rehabilitation seem to have done the trick for Ballack. Since his return in December, 2007, he’s played well and scored several key goals, including a brace in Chelsea’s April win over Manchester United that kept the team’s title hopes alive, and Champions League goals against Olympiakos and Fenerbahçe that were key in helping the team on their road to this week’s final.

Chelsea is hoping that this run of good form will help them bring home the Champions League trophy on Wednesday, and Germany is hoping to see it continue through Euros.

Ballack is also rather easy on the eyes, or so I’m told, which has caused him to be in high demand for endorsements and advertisements like this one, which I thought was kind of cute:

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