Ballack carries the hopes of a nation

Powerful midfielder Michael Ballack could salvage German hopes at the World Cup finals when he will be asked to lift an injury-ravaged squad whose expectations are lower than usual.

"Ballack is so well advanced that he can take on the role of leader," national coach Rudi Voller said recently - and with fellow midfielder Sebastian Deisler ruled out by injury, Ballack shoulders the hopes of a nation.

Bayer Leverkusen - a club who have never even won their domestic title - reached this year's European Champions League final largely thanks to his efforts and the 25-year-old propelled himself into the international limelight in the process.

He destroyed Liverpool's hopes in the quarter-finals of the competition with two goals in the thrilling 4-2 second leg win, including a piledriver of a shot for his side's opening goal.

Ballack scored again in the 2-2 draw in the first leg of the semi-final against Manchester United but his participation in the return match seemed in doubt when he badly bruised his foot in a Bundesliga match.

"All we can do is pray," said Leverkusen coach Klaus Toppmoller. His prayers were answered as Ballack not only took to the field but led his team-mates to the draw they needed to reach the final.

He may have been eclipsed by Zinedine Zidane as Leverkusen lost 2-1 to Real Madrid in that final, but he ensured he will be one German to watch in South Korea and Japan.

When he returns from Asia, Ballack will move to Bayern Munich, who are rebuilding their entire team around him and Deisler.

Toppmoller is already bemoaning his loss. "It's going to be extremely difficult to replace players such as Ballack . . . because they have so much quality," said the chain-smoking technician.

Born in the former East Germany, Ballack is a product of the Communist sports schools, although he was only 13 when the Berlin Wall fell.

His first club was Motor Karl-Marx Stadt, then Chemnitz before he moved west to Kaiserslautern, where he was far from a first-team regular when they won the league title in 1998.

He was sold to Leverkusen - the team backed by the pharmaceuticals giant and hardly Germany's most glamorous club - in 1999 but made an inauspicious start. He invited comparisons with Voller by selecting his number 13 shirt and promptly failed to live up to them as he was injured.

He scored an own goal that cost the club the title in the 1999-2000 season and was a bit player in Germany's dismal European Championships campaign in 2000.

But Ballack became a central midfielder this season as potent when attacking as defending.

"He has everything," said Liverpool's Dietmar Hamann, also his international team-mate.

"He is two-footed, has vision and is a constant threat on goal."

Ballack has inevitably been dubbed the new Lothar Matthaus and his critics say he shares another trait with the hub of the 1990 World Cup-winning side - arrogance.