Ballack stayed in Munich for four years, remaining there until the 2006 World Cup in Germany, where he led the German national team to third place as captain. He won the German league title three times with Bayern Munich and also secured three DFB Cup titles. In 157 appearances for Bayern, he scored 62 goals.
In 2006, upon the expiry of his contract, he deliberately “didn’t go back to Uli Hoeneß’s office – because I knew he had the ability to change my mind again”, said the 49-year-old. Ballack had at the time “made the decision to do something different again” and moved to Chelsea FC on a free transfer.
Did he ever regret not accepting Real Madrid’s offer? “It was clear to me that this chance might never come again,” recalled Ballack, before revealing that in 2004 he also had the opportunity to move to Real’s arch-rivals FC Barcelona. “We had issues with Bayern and were very close – but that didn’t work out either,” said the 98-time international.
At the time, Bayern had just come off a disappointing and trophy-less 2003/04 season, in which Ballack and his teammates finished as runners-up behind Werder Bremen. Furthermore, they were knocked out of the DFB-Pokal in the quarter-finals by then-second-tier side Alemannia Aachen, whilst their Champions League campaign came to an end in the round of 16 against Real.