Chelsea Has Pissed Off the Entire German Football Federation
By: Inara | September 10th, 2007
The drama surrounding Michael Ballack took a further turn today. After being excluded from Chelsea’s Champions League squad because he may not be fit for most of the group stages (Joachim Low and the German NT doctors disagree), Ballack was also prevented from filming a publicity shoot for Adidas, the main sponsor of the German national team.
It wasn’t that Chelsea wouldn’t let Ballack participate but that they withheld permission until the last possible moment, and by then Ballack had returned to London. Germany’s national team manager, Oliver Bierhoff, blasted Chelsea and accused them of disrespecting a player of Ballack’s status.
Ballack is “sad” at Chelsea’s decision but has otherwise kept quiet about his status on his club team. And though reports are circulating that Ballack was omitted due to UEFA’s homegrown player requirement, it hasn’t dampened speculation that Chelsea are trying to offload Ballack in the January transfer window, something further fueled by Franz Beckenbauer, who claims that Ballack should have joined Manchester United instead.
Chelsea spokesman Peter Kenyon is conveniently on vacation, but it looks like Michael Ballack has become what everyone else thought he’d turn out to be - an overpaid Chelsea bench boy.
He shouldn’t worry though. He’ll probably end up at Real Madrid, just like many other overpaid and unwanted players.
And that’s it from me, folks. Tomorrow, Trent of the Arsenal Offside will be taking over Bob’s duties.
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Comments
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This does seem foolish on the Blue’s part. However, after reading the Guardian blog entry, I can understand what happened.
A useful comparison for Americans new to the sport would be the New York Yankees (if you’re into baseball at all). The Yankees are notorious for throwing money around for top talent. I see the association-/club-trained requirements as the “Yankee’s rule” — preventing a club from just tossing money around for the sake of getting good players and making them use their farm system to develop local talent!
Posted from
United States
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You´re absolutely right Inara. Like JT and FL, absolutely overpaid. Let´s face the facts, Chelsea will never win the Championsleague. With or without him, there´s no teamspirit at all.
Posted from
United States -
With Ballack we won’t win anything - and we didn’t - no loss - cant wait till he goes!!
KTBFFH
Posted from
United States
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