Michael Ballack enjoyed his career which included five domestic league titles, two Champions League finals and a World Cup runners-up medal. But he regretted leaving Chelsea too soon.
One of the main reason to join Chelsea in the summer of 2006 was the opportunity to work with Jose Mourinho.
The Portuguese manager had led the club to back-to-back Premier League titles and, aided by the financial power of Roman Abramovich, was attracting some of Europe’s finest to London.
Asked who he spoke to before joining Chelsea, Ballack said: “It was important for me to talk to the coach. You really get caught by his personality and by his ambitions.
“Working with a coach like that was something totally new for me. He was impressive and I felt totally comfortable with the decision.”
But, having lost their league crown to Manchester United in Ballack’s first campaign in England, Chelsea fell further behind at the start of the 2007-08 season and Mourinho was gone.
“I was experienced enough to understand,” Ballack said. “When you are not winning, the coach is more or less the weakest person in the team who can be replaced.
“He (Mourinho) was in his fourth year. If you look at the average time a manager has to work in a club, it was quite a good time.
“The way he worked was so intense that maybe you come to a point where things are not working anymore. Even then, the fans know what he achieved at the club to take them back to that level.
“It was more or less everyone’s fault – the players’ fault. It was not something we regret, though, we had to look forward.
“The relationship is still good with him. You will not find many players who speak badly about him.”
However, Ballack spoke about his regret over leaving Stamford Bridge when Ancelotti became the club’s manager.
“Carlo want me [to stay] but the club made a decision to only give players of that age a one-year contract. I wanted two,” Ballack said.
“Today, I can say maybe it was wrong. I should have stayed, even for that one year.
“I could never imagine that I would go back to [Bayer] Leverkusen. Until the last day, I actually thought we would find a way at Chelsea. I was really hoping I could stay until the end.”
