The making of Ballack: Chelsea's German master is a winner in every way

Michael Ballack’s clinical brace against Manchester United at the weekend has taken the title race to the wire.

This season the German midfielder has finally started claiming a spot on a more regular basis at Chelsea, albeit partly down to an injury-hit season for Frank Lampard. All this is a far cry from his first few months at the club, when he was lumped in with Andrei Shevchenko as a post-World Cup glamour signing that Jose Mourinho didn’t even want, and became perhaps the most expensive bench-warmer ever to grace the Premier League.

This season, Ballack has begun to show the qualities that make him the darling of German football, and he seems to have won over the Chelsea fans in the process. A fantastic range of passing and an eye for goal are shining through, not to mention coolness and a head for the big game.

Last season he put Manchester United out of the FA Cup, and this season he could yet snatch the title from them. His bullet header only added to the strong nerves he showed to convert a hotly-disputed penalty without any inkling he would ever miss. He knew as he stepped up to the ball, as only a German can, that he was about to celebrate a famous goal. You have to wonder whether Didier Drogba, for all his tantrums, would have done the same.