Michael Ballack

Michael Ballack is a retired football player from Germany, born in 1976. He graduated from Chemnitzer FC and was promoted to the first team, where he played until the summer of 1997. Then he joined 1. FC Kaiserslautern, which had just won promotion to the Bundesliga. His spell there was successful because in 1997/98 they won Bundesliga title and in his second season with the team Kaiserslautern reached the quarterfinals of UEFA Champions League.

In July 1999 Ballack signed €4.1 million deal with Bayer Leverkusen and while playing for the team they were Bundesliga, DFB-Pokal and UEFA Champions League runners-up in 2001/02. In 2002 he was bought by Bayern Munich for €12.9 million and helped his side to claim Bundesliga and DFB-Pokal titles in 2002/03, 2004/05 and 2005/06.

In 2006 he joined Chelsea, where he made his debut on 31 July 2006. Throughout his stay Chelsea won Premier League in 2009/10 and twice were league runners-up, in 2006/07 they won League Cup and FA Cup. In 2007/08 the team was Champions League runners-up. Between 2010 and 2012 Michael Ballack played for Bayer Leverkusen and as a part of the team he celebrated the Bundesiga title in 2010/11.

He was called up to play for the Germany national team since 1999 and helped the squad to win FIFA World Cup silver medals in 2002 and bronze medals in 2006. In 2005 they were bronze madals winners in FIFA Confederations Cup and in 2008 Germany finished runners-up in European Football Championship.