Michael Ballack turns 50 – Happy Birthday, Balle!

Michael Ballack was born on 26 September 1976 in Görlitz, in the former GDR. His talent for football was apparent from an early age. After the family moved to Karl-Marx-Stadt, now known as Chemnitz, he began playing football at BSG Motor 'Fritz Heckert' Karl-Marx-Stadt. From year seven, he attended a Children and Youth Sports School and received a systematic sporting education there, which led to a move to FC Karl-Marx-Stadt in 1988.

from cfc to title with fck

Following reunification in 1990, FC Karl-Marx-Stadt was renamed Chemnitzer FC and "Balle", as he was later called in Leverkusen, made his professional debut for Chemnitz in 1995 in Bundesliga 2. That was followed by his first match for the German U21 team in March 1996. Chemnitz were relegated to the third tier that season but Ballack stayed and was a key player for his side in the 1996/97 Regionalliga Nordost campaign. This caught the attention of 1. FC Kaiserslautern, just promoted back to the Bundesliga, and he moved to the Palatinate.

Ballack made 16 appearances in his debut Bundesliga season, although only three of these were starts. Nevertheless, the campaign ended with Kaiserslautern's sensational Bundesliga title as a newly promoted club, and Ballack held the Meisterschale in his hands for the first time. The following season went considerably better for him on an individual level and he was even rewarded with his senior debut for Germany in April 1999.

big breakthrough with werkself

But it was at Bayer 04, where Ballack played from 1999 to 2002, that he really made his breakthrough. Under coaches Christoph Daum, Berti Vogts and Klaus Toppmöller, he developed into the complete midfielder - with technical ability, goal threat, vision and leadership qualities. He established himself as a first-team regular in his first season with the Werkself, although it ended with the Unterhaching drama on the final day and his own goal in a 2-0 defeat, which meant Bayer 04 missed out on the title. The 2001/02 season was his most important and perhaps best season, in which he scored 17 goals in the Bundesliga and six in the UEFA Champions League as the Werkself claimed three runners-up spots in the league, Champions League and DFB Pokal. He'd already announced in December 2001 that he would be moving to FC Bayern Munich in the summer but he continued to produce excellent performances, confounding all skeptical Bayer 04 fans.

footballer of the year - but no champions league trophy

He also shone for the national team, scoring the winning goal in both the quarter-final and the semi-final at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea as Germany reached the final. However, shortly before his goal in the semi-final, he committed a foul on a South Korea player who was in a promising shooting position on the edge of the area, and was shown a yellow card. That resulted in him being suspended for the final against Brazil. Who knows how that match would've turned out with an in-form Michael Ballack... That year, he was also rightly named 'Footballer of the Year' in Germany.

He earned the same accolade in 2003 after winning the double with FC Bayern in his first season. He also won the Bundesliga and DFB Pokal with the Munich club in 2005 and 2006 and was again named 'Footballer of the Year' in 2005. He was unable to fulfil his big dream of winning the Champions League at Bayern, though, which is why he moved abroad to Chelsea FC in 2006. In four years with the Londoners, he won one Premier League title, three FA Cups and one League Cup but Europe's most prestigious trophy continued to elude him, with Chelsea losing to league rivals Manchester United on penalties in the 2008 final.

'capitano' at home world cup - Return to Bayer

In the national team, he was named captain by coach Jürgen Klinsmann for the home World Cup in 2006, which earned him his second nickname of "Capitano". He continued to lead Germany until the 2010 World Cup, but he sustained a serious injury in Chelsea's FA Cup final against Portsmouth before the tournament in South Africa and never played for his country again after that. His international career ended after 98 caps and 42 goals.

When Chelsea only offered Ballack a one-year contract in 2010, but he wanted two years, he moved back to Leverkusen. As early as Bernd Schneider’s testimonial on 9 October 2009 – to which Ballack, as one of "Schnix"s’ teammates, was also invited – the Bayer 04 fans were chanting: “Micha, come back, Micha, come back, Micha, Micha, Micha, come back!” This is how the idea first arose to bring him back to Bayer a year later, and so in the summer of 2010, he joined for the second time.

However, he suffered a shin fracture on Matchday 3 and missed the rest of the calendar year. Although the midfielder only made 17 appearances in this season, the Werkself qualified for the Champions League. Ballack's time at Bayer 04 came to an end after the second season and he eventually announced his retirement from football on 2 October 2012. He has since worked as a TV pundit, in advertising and in various social projects, among other things. 

"Balle" played under the Bayer Cross for five years altogether and was a leading figure of the team in this time. In particular his first stint from 1999 to 2002 and his evolution at Leverkusen into a world-class player make him a true Bayer 04 legend.