Stage 9

Stage 9: Ballacks rhodium imageSorted out: National coach Joachim Löw has finished Michael Ballack's national team career after 98 games in the DFB jersey. It is therefore certain that he will not reach the magic limit of 100 international matches. Another bitter disappointment for many of the players he had to accept during his career. As in 2008 in the European Championship finals. While the Spanish internationals were in each other's arms after the 1-0 victory over the DFB eleven, Ballack was dismayed, his eyes empty. Then the then captain of the German national team sunk onto the pitch of the Ernst Happel Stadium in Vienna. For minutes he watched the Spanish cheering in frustration. Once again Ballack passed a meaningful trophy without being allowed to stretch it up. The lost European Championship final was the second big final within six weeks that Ballack lost. On 21 May 2008 he lost the Champions League final with FC Chelsea in Moscow. Against Manchester United, the "Blues" lost the penalty shootout (5:6). Although Ballack transformed his penalty shot, he cried bitter tears in the end. Because John Terry missed the match point for Chelsea, ManU was back on penalties and finally took the title. Two years earlier, Ballack was also in tears. After losing the semi-final against Italy in Dortmund (0:2), the then national coach Jürgen Klinsmann comforted his "Capitano". It would have been Ballack's first World Cup final, because he had not been in the final against Brazil (0:2) four years earlier because of a yellow bar. In the semi-final against South Korea, he had first seen the yellow card from referee Urs Meier and scored the 1-0 winning goal four minutes later. Another bitter moment after Ballack had lost the Champions League final against Real Madrid 1-2 to Bayer Leverkusen in Glasgow a few weeks earlier. Ballack played for the factory club for three years, but was unable to win a title with Bayer. He was also very close to it in the 1999/2000 season, when Leverkusen's draw in Unterhaching on the last Bundesliga matchday would have been enough to win the championship title. But it was Ballack of all people, with his own goal in the 21st minute, who initiated Bayer's 2-0 defeat, which helped Bayern Munich to the championship.