Ballack name brings Trini fan fame

AT LEAST one local football fan who travelled to Germany for the World Cup will never forget the wonderful, warm and welcoming experience of the world’s most well-known sporting event.

His name is Robert Ballack — with his surname making him the toast of Germany since it is the same as the captain of the German football team, Michael Ballack.

However, Robert, who hails from Gasparillo, believes that the similarity in the names is not just pure co-incidence.

In fact, he thinks that the German football captain — referred to by football gurus as a “Midfield Maestro,” might actually be a distant relative of his.

World class footballer Michael Ballack was born on September 26, 1976, at Chemintz, in East Germany. His birth was before the “Iron Curtain” was raised uniting East and West Germany. He has three sons and also plays for German football club Bayern Munich, but will move to Chelsea for the 2006-2007 season.

The local Ballack was born and bred in Marabella, and lives at Gasparillo with his wife. Newsday caught up with the local Ballack at his sister’s house at Middlesex, England, and asked what sparked his curiosity about the probable relation.

He told Newsday: “When I saw him (Michael Ballack) play one day I noticed his name and that it was spelt the same way as mine. Then when I looked at him I thought that he actually looked like my relatives.

“I did some checking and I realised that I actually had a relative who had lived in Germany around the time that he (the German football captain) would have been born.”

Robert said he thought it was fate when the Soca Warriors qualified for the World Cup finals in Germany where the talented German captain Michael Ballack would be one of the headliners of the tournament. Today, the Michael Ballack-led German team are carded to play in the semi-finals of the tournament against Italy.

The local Ballack journeyed to Europe with some hope of uncovering whether or not Michael Ballack may indeed be some sort of relative. He packed his bags and flew to Germany with thousands of other local Soca Warrior fans.

To his surprise, recognition of his surname — a household one to German fans — came almost immediately. Robert told Newsday that when he landed at the airport at Rotenburg a Customs officer, seemingly startled when he noticed the name “Ballack” in Robert’s passport, looked at him in amazement and asked: “You are Ballack?” The question brought a smile to Robert’s face, he said and he replied a resounding “yes.”

Robert said that when he arrived at the hotel he again drew attention when word got around that his name was Ballack.

He said the hotel manager became very curious about the name and how he could possibly bear the same name as the German football captain.

“The hotel manager got very excited about the possibility that we (Michael Ballack and Robert Ballack) may be relatives and he called the press who interviewed me about it.”

Robert said the hotel manager also attempted to make contact with the German football captain or at least the German football camp.

Robert was interviewed by reporter Brigitte Berget of The Journal — a local paper at Rotenburg — and the article was published on June 14. Its title stated: “Ballack is here: German football fan with same name as German captain.”

Parts of the article were translated yesterday from German to English, by German UWI lecturer Renate Dowden.

Dowden told Newsday yesterday that the article dealt with Robert’s warm welcome at a hotel in Germany.

The hotel manager was thrilled over Ballack’s having the German captain’s name and “rolled out the red carpet” for him.

The article also spoke of the warm welcome Ballack received in Germany.

Ballack (robert) told Newsday, that whether or not it turns out that the football legend is a distant relative of his, he would love to meet with him. “It will be amazing to meet with him,” Robert said. “That would be delightful. Who knows we might even ‘knock a ball.”

“I wasn’t a bad footballer myself, you know.”