Barry's Beef

Michael checks his Ballacks

It's World Cup fever and what better way to gear up than the news that the German's star player being crocked? Wayne Rooney's seemingly near miraculous recovery from injury notwithstanding.
Interestingly (or not) I'll try a bit of a test. It is only for people with a good, sound knowledge of football. Word association. What word do you associate with Michael Ballack. TALISMANIC.
It's amazing. Read any article about Ballack and it will go on about how he's the German talisman. A quick Google search has offered the following Ballack/Talisman-isms

Ballack is Germany’s talisman – and playing as a midfielder, he’ll be priced up at very tasty odds to open the scoring in Germany’s group games.

Bayern resigned to losing talisman
Bundesliga champion Bayern Munich has become reliant on goals from German international Michael Ballack but must now think about looking for another source of inspiration with the player poised to sign for Chelsea.


Hosts Germany open the World Cup against Costa Rica on Friday and they will need their playmaker and talisman to be at his best as they aim for cup glory in front of their own fans.

*beeps buzzer* repetition.

Sadly this isn't Just a Minute though. The deification of Ballack is due to the fact that this is not a great German team, but Ballack is good enough to have played in those glory teams.

Anyway over to Jurgen Klinsmann, the German Obermesiter and Coach:
"He's our leader and our skipper and we hoped to have him available." Harks back to times gone by - Ein Volk, Ein Fuhrer, Ein Mittelfeldspieler and perhaps now Ein Talisman.