Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz, Saxony, East Germany on September 26, 1976. A versatile and well-conditioned player, capable with both his left and right foot, equally comfortable in attack and defence and good in the air, he made his name as a classic box-to-box midfielder with Bayer Leverkusen operating as the central midfielder taking on both defensive and attacking responsibilities.
Michael Ballack was born in Görlitz, Saxony, East Germany on September 26, 1976. A versatile and well-conditioned player, capable with both his left and right foot, equally comfortable in attack and defence and good in the air, he made his name as a classic box-to-box midfielder with Bayer Leverkusen operating as the central midfielder taking on both defensive and attacking responsibilities. Later in his career, at FC Bayern Munich, he excelled in a deeper role, concentrating on protecting the back four and distributing the ball.
These attributes have earned him the German player of the year award on three occasions (2002, 2003, 2005). His professional debut came on 4 August 1995 for Chemnitzer FC and in 1997 he signed for FC Kaiserslautern. On 1 July 1999, some two months after his first full international at the age of 22, Michael moved to Bayer Leverkusen, for a transfer fee of €4.8 m. In 2002 he moved once again, this time to Bayern Munich in a €12.9 m deal. Here he was deployed in a more defensive role, but still managed ten goals as Bayern stormed to the Bundesliga title. Michael Ballack also scored twice in the 3-1 German Cup final win against Kaiserslautern.
In four seasons at Bayern, Ballack won three Bundesliga and German Cup doubles and scored 47 goals in 135 matches and between 1998 and 2005, he notched up 61 goals in his domestic league. Ballack agreed to join Chelsea on a Bosman transfer on 15 May 2006.In his first 75 internationals, Ballack found the net 35 times. He has been selected in FIFA's 100 Greatest Living Players.
(c) Givemefootball.com official Michael Ballack profile
