Germany pin hopes on Ballack

In times of crisis, it takes a cool head to maintain calm. While Germany have had their share of problems in recent seasons, in their darkest hour they have been able to depend upon midfield player Michael Ballack to steer them to safety.

Career-defining performance
Perhaps there is no better indication of that unflappable quality than Ballack's performance in Germany's 2002 FIFA World Cup play-off against Ukraine. With the vultures gathering around Rudi Völler's side, his headed goal in Kiev secured Germany a 1-1 first-leg draw. Then, within four minutes of the kick-off in the return match, any remaining doubts evaporated as Ballack raced through from a Bernd Schneider pass and put Germany on the way to a comfortable 4-1 win, in which he also scored the final goal with his head.

The new Beckenbauer
Such is his imperious poise in the German side that many have compared Ballack to German legend Franz Beckenbauer. He is a strong runner, physically imposing, can play with both feet and has a sense of composure about his play that some have misinterpreted as arrogance. Ballack's style has nothing to do with overconfidence. He is simply an excellent player and knows it.

Extremely hot property
Ballack began his career in East Germany, signing for Chemnitzer FC as a 14-year-old. There he soon caught the attention of every scout in Germany and was duly snapped up by 1. FC Kaiserslautern, but left for Bayer 04 Leverkusen for €4.8m after a disagreement with coach Otto Rehhagel.

Toppmöller's secret weapon
Once at the BayArena, Ballack quickly settled in, but it was not until Bertie Vogts was replaced by Klaus Toppmöller that he began to show the kind of imperious form and prolific goalscoring that have made him such a thrilling player. "This year has been very important for my personal development," he told uefa.com in the 2001/02 season. "Under Berti Vogts it didn't work very well for me, but when Klaus Toppmöller took over, things changed."

Völler's prize asset
Leverkusen have since grown into genuine UEFA Champions League challengers and Ballack is the pivotal figure of Völler's new-look German side. Völler showed faith in Ballack and he responded with a series of vital goals as Germany took the long route to Korea/Japan. He scored against Greece, Finland and Albania and then struck in both legs of the play-off against Ukraine. "I am glad that Rudi Völler will stay in charge until the next World Cup in Germany in 2006," he told uefa.com. "So far he has done a fantastic job and I hope we will achieve much more with him the next few years."

Forward to Bayern
Still a moderately young player, Ballack surprised some supporters by electing to move to German giants FC Bayern München in the summer of 2002 in a deal worth €14.5m. Ballack claimed that he had chosen to move to the Olympiastadion "for primarily sporting reasons" and Bayern were delighted to bring such an enormously popular player to the club.

The German's German
In every sense, Ballack is still a rising star, but the German public have found it hard to contain their excitement about a player who seems to encapsulate so many of the cardinal virtues of German football. He has excellent vision, good discipline and manages to make a difficult job look easy. After years of German footballing underachievement, finally here is a player who can bring some grace and elegance to the national side.