Why michael ballack is not playing

It was his chance to ride off into the sunset a champion at long last. But as it did so many times in his career, fate intervened in the form of an injury that excluded him from his farewell tournament. Age: 35 Caps: Position: Midfielder Int'l goals: Leverkusen was due to face SpVgg Unterhaching in an away game and all they had to do is not to lose to the team who was in the middle of the table and had nothing really to play for.

Despite all that Leverkusen lost and Bayern Munich would become a champion. As it turns out that would not be the last time Michael Ballack would experience a bitter taste of defeat when the victory was just around the corner.

Ballack would establish himself further as the leader of the team as in — season he would end up with 39 appearances in all competitions and score 7 goals. Despite that, the team has not won anything during that campaign. Despite that, he fell one step short in every one of them. In Bundesliga with only three games to play Bayern Leverkusen was not only top of the table but also had 5 points margins over Borussia Dortmund in second place.

In Champions League final Leverkusen scored an opening goal only to concede equalizer from Raul and a wonder volley from Zidane after Roberto Carlos cross.

To make matters worse Michael and the German national team would lose to Brazil in the final of World Cup Ballack himself would miss the final game of the tournament due to the yellow card he got in the semi-finals.

Despite that, he was one of the leaders on that team as he provided 4 assists and scored 3 goals and was recognized as one of the best players of that tournament.

However, team would fell short in Champions League every single season having only reached quarter-finals only once during his spell with Bayern Munich. Big stage success avoided Ballack with the national team once again as they would not make it out of the group stage in Euro and in World Cup that Germany hosted would finish in third place.

Ballack was part of that Chelsea team who lost the Premier League title race on the final day, when Manchester United secured a win at Wigan Athletic while Avram Grant's side could only draw against Bolton Wanderers.

Chelsea were also runners-up in the League Cup as goals from Dimitar Berbatov and Jonathan Woodgate secured a Tottenham win and, of course, Ballack played all minutes of the Champions League final defeat to Sir Alex Ferguson's side, where the Blues lost on penalties naturally Ballack converted his spot-kick.

It was just another miserable campaign for Ballack, who must have felt incredibly hard done by. Is there a more unlucky footballer when it comes to missing out at the final hurdle? Chosen for You Chosen for You.