Ballack: Perpetually 2nd

Well Ballack is infamous for his 2nd place finishes, and a lot of you know the quadra fails (treble +final of major interntional tournament) of 2002 and 2008.
(If you're too young to remember the 2002 "fail", Neverkusen lost a 5 point lead with 3 rounds left to Dortmund, lost the CL final to THAT Zidane goal, and lost the German cup to Schalke and was suspended for the WC final.

Let me take you even further back to 2000. The table looks like:
Round 33
1 Bayer Leverkusen.......... 33 74:34 73pts
2 Bayern München........... 33 70:27 70pts
3 Hamburger SV.............. 33 62:38 58pts
4 TSV 1860 München....... 33 54:47 52pts
5 Hertha BSC Berlin.......... 33 39:43 50pts
7 Werder Bremen............. 33 64:49 47pts
10 SpVgg Unterhaching...... 33 38:42 41pts

Bayern were set to play against 7th placed Werder Bremen at home, whilst Leverkusen's final match was also in Munich, away to Unterhaching (<3) so in 2000 all eyes in Germany were on 2 stadiums 12km apart.
You can all guess what happened, but could you imagine how it happened?



(3 Munich clubs in top 10 that year with 2 in CL )

The Ballack story is as tragic as it can get. (trophy-wise)
For me just another reason to think there is no god.

At a brighter note: The german league finals of the early 00s are (in)famous for being close as hell. One reason, that (club-)football gained a lot traction at that time in Germany, despite awful national displays.

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case in point: (all german but you'll get the excitement)
2001: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq-Uqz_vT5o
2002: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL9ZUKVIHIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsVX8eOSbeQ

ImAbackBone wrote:The Ballack story is as tragic as it can get. (trophy-wise)

And to think it all started with an own goal... What an omen.

ImAbackBone wrote:
case in point: (all german but you'll get the excitement)
2001: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lq-Uqz_vT5o
2002: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FL9ZUKVIHIk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsVX8eOSbeQ

Ich bin Münchner (Lehel) also weiß ich wie spannend es war

Spoiler:

what if he won all these trophies ?? pple will rate him as the best CM in history ??for me ballack at peak > xavi at peak

Mia_San_Mia wrote:what if he won all these trophies ?? pple will rate him as the best CM in history ??for me ballack at peak > xavi at peak

If you boil football down to it's core, it's just a game, aka: a big bag of luck and bad fortune.
So if you reach a big trophy final like 5-6 times in your career, chances are rather high (say 10%) you will lose all of them.
If you belong to those 10% of bad luck players, you will be a marginal note in football-history, despite your abilities.

It's sad but true.

Would he be more famous than Xavi if he won them all? Probably!
Also he is more handsome and for all his bigheadedness, a very likeable guy.

His entire career is a tragedy achievement wise, if I was Ballack the "what if" questions from so many 2nd place finishes would drive me crazy.

He won 4 Bundesliga's and a PL so I don't feel that sorry for him for not winning a leauge title but

Never has a guy been more unlucky in Finals.

I wonder how much he curses Terry

Definitely deserved some major silverware. At least the CL because the World Cup would have been quite a strech back then.

Sushi Master wrote:Definitely deserved some major silverware. At least the CL because the World Cup would have been quite a strech back then.

Unfortunately he is again at Vizekusen now. Bad omens...

I'm almost more sad that he ruined his NT farewell, too. He really should have taken the Brazil match to bow out in style. So now he didn't even have that.

rwo power wrote:

Sushi Master wrote:Definitely deserved some major silverware. At least the CL because the World Cup would have been quite a strech back then.

Unfortunately he is again at Vizekusen now. Bad omens...

I'm almost more sad that he ruined his NT farewell, too. He really should have taken the Brazil match to bow out in style. So now he didn't even have that.

Yea but tbh personaility wise he shouldn't be anyones idol in that respect imo