An ankle operation before the climax to the 2006/07 season denied Michael any action in the first half of 2007/08, but after Christmas he made his mark as one of Chelsea's most reliable performers.

Eight months out were ended with a substitute appearance in the Carling Cup against Liverpool, and immediately the German made an impact, flicking on a cross for Andriy Shevchenko to seal the win.

Important goals followed in quick succession against Aston Villa and Fulham as Ballack, skippering the side in the absence of others, led the team through a difficult January period back into the title race.

He popped up again in March with a Goal of the Season contender at West Ham, before demonstrating his steely nerve with two goals against Manchester United in April, including an 86th minute penalty.

Three weeks later the midfielder faced Edwin van der Sar again in Moscow, and produced the same result with a well struck spot-kick, only to see the Dutchman later save Nicolas Anelka's effort.

With nine goals in just 30 appearances, Ballack's second season at Stamford Bridge was a success, after a campaign of acclimatisation in 2006/07.

He missed out on a place in the FA Cup winning side due to his ankle injury but he had made a mark in Chelsea's earlier triumphant Carling Cup Final, slipping the perfect pass through for Didier Drogba's important equaliser against Arsenal in Cardiff.

Another high point was the extra-time FA Cup semi-final winner against Blackburn that sent Chelsea to Wembley and although Michael's seven goals from midfield was lower than his seasonal average, his overall contribution frequently drew commendation from José Mourinho.

Just one week after the close of the previous season, Chelsea announced our intention not to sit on the laurels of back-to-back championship wins when we signed the biggest name in the German game.

By the end of that summer, the club also added the purchases of Andriy Shevchenko and Ashley Cole.

'One thing is to build a team around two or three world class players,' explained José Mourinho at the time of the Ballack signing.

'It is a very different thing to have already a world class team and add two or three world class players.

Before he could put on a Chelsea shirt, Michael performed the most momentous task that can be asked of a footballer - to captain his nation in a World Cup held in his homeland.

Despite niggling injury problems and a blank entry on the scoresheet, he was still able to whet the appetite of Blues fans with his vision, technique, supreme passing and time on the ball as Germany exceeded initial expectations.

When Michael decided to leave Bayern Munich on a free transfer prior to the 2006 World Cup, he could have taken his pick from Europe's finest clubs. However the English Premier League had long appealed.

Michael was born in the pre-reunification East Germany where he started his professional career at Karl-Marx-Stadt FC, the club changing name to Chemnitz FC after the fall of the Eastern Bloc.

He became an Under 21 international whilst there before moving up the ladder to Bundesliga club Kaiserslautern in 1997.

He made 16 appearances in an historic first season - his new club becoming the first newly-promoted outfit the win the German league.

Aged 22, Michael became a full international and soon made a move to Bayer Leverkusen where his career truly began to take off, culminating in the 2002 Champions League Final.

Bayer lost out to Zinedine Zidane and Real Madrid but the team's inspiration in midfield won the first of three German Player of the Year awards.

His country's biggest club, Bayern Munich, came calling that summer and Michael moved for £12.9m, winning his second Bundesliga winners' medal in his first season in Bavaria.

He then scored twice in the German Cup Final to make it a double success.

That double triumph was repeated two seasons later and then again the next year, his last one in Germany.

As tradition demands for German internationals, Michael has been a part of strong World Cup campaigns.

It was his two goals that took his team through the quarter- and semi-final stages at the Japan/South Korea 2002 event but a booking in the semi, earned selflessly attempting to preserve the lead, meant heartbreak as he was forced to sit out the Final versus Brazil.

In 2006 in Germany it was late goals by the Italians that denied a Final appearance but in Euro 2008, the Germans were again strong, Michael's free-kick winner over Austria taking them out of the group stage. He was then outstanding in a quarter-final victory over Portugal, his goal the winner as Luiz Felipe Scolari suffered defeat at this stage for the first time.

A dangerous header of a ball and comfortable shooting and passing with either foot, Michael arrived at Chelsea with a goal-scoring record pushing one in every two games for both club and country, a ratio he will be aiming to meet again in 2008/09.