Was He Always a Jerk, or Can We Blame Chelsea?
Michael Ballack’s mouth is apparently healing along with his shins, but his ego’s still bruised. If you recall—Ballack was injured during Chelsea’s FA Cup match and unable to participate for Germany in this summer’s World Cup. Philipp Lahm was given the captain’s armband and mused that it looked good on his arm.
Ballack attempted to tell Lahm where to go but ended up leaving South Africa himself over the verbal handbags. Since he was later re-injured during Bundesliga play with new club Bayer Leverkusen, Ballack continued to be unavailable for selection during Germany’s Euro 2012 qualifiers and friendlies. Lahm retained the captaincy but gaffer Jogi Loew later defined Lahm as being a deputy captain.
As he looks set to return to full team training with Bayer Leverkusen in January, Ballack has decided to squash a few more sour grapes out of the ordeal, returning to talk about how Jogi and Lahm hurt his feelings (Warning: German link) and that if Loew had only let everyone know Ballack was King Kraut all along “we would have been spared unnecessary discussions.”
What part of the “You were crocked and there was no way you could get on the pitch to captain your side” are we missing?
Granted, the way in which Jogi vacillated between naming Lahm the captain but only because Ballack was hurt and we’ll examine it when Ballack is available for selection was a bit weak—but if the player can’t be on the pitch for his side, what does it matter if he’s not named captain?
Other than the ego-stroking, of course.
This recent flare-up by Ballack doesn’t seem to bode well for Die Mannschaft when he does become available again for selection. If the returning captain retains a resentment for both the “deputy captain” and the manager, this would seem to pose a problem for squad unity and cohesion. It’s not like Ballack won’t see Lahm in team training—if the lad’s healthy, he’s Loew’s first choice selection at RB. Team unity seemed to be one of the qualities the young German team possessed in bunches during its relatively successful World Cup run in South Africa.
Isn’t that what a captain is supposed to encourage rather than disrupt?
Ah well—all Jogi really has to do to settle this is schedule a friendly with Ghana—Kevin Prince Boateng will be waiting.
Or, they could just not pick him, ever again, as he’s kinda past it.
I pulled for Ze Germans this summer. I think that would have been impossible if this douche was playing.
I bet he tears his bicep putting the captain’s armband on. If he ever gets that close to putting it on again, that is.
Awww. So much Michael Ballack hate!
(I don’t really know much about him as a person, but he was my first footy love so he holds a special place in my heart)
It’s so easy to loathe this f*ck.