Ballack: Not Even The Best At Being Second!

By: Rob | July 23rd, 2008

Last season was a miserable season for Chelsea’s Micheal Ballack. The German midfielder finished runner up in the League Cup, The EPL, The Champions League and Euro 2008, with Chelsea and Germany respectively. This isn’t the first time this has happened to him either – back in 2002, he came second in the Bundesliga, Champions League, German League Cup and the 2002 World Cup. The question posed over at The Guardian was “Is he the biggest loser of all time” – The answer, surprisingly is No. Find out who is the shock winner at losing after the jump.

The winner, is Milan legend Poalo Maldini. Ballack has a mere 12 runner up medals. The legendary Italian, who of course is very good at winning too, has picked up an incredible 17 runner up medals in his Milan carrer. These are:

Three Champions League Finals
Three World Club Cups
Two Coppa Italias
Three Supercoppa Italias
One Uefa Super Cup
A World Cup (1994)
And Euro 2000
Three Seasons Milan have finished Serie A 2nd.

An incredible record, and just shows that when it comes to losing, the German Midfielder can’t even get that right!

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Category: Champions League

Tags: AC Milan, Bayer, Bayern Munich, Champions League, Chelsea, Euro 2000, Euro 2008, Germany, Italy, Japan, Loser, Micheal Ballack, Milan, Poalo Maldini, South Korea, USA 94, World Cup 2002

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Comments  

• Corey |  July 23rd, 2008 at 7:37 am

  
  
  

  But Maldini has won alot more then Ballack, which would cancel out all of the losses he had, meaning Ballack still is the #1 loser.

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• Jan |  July 23rd, 2008 at 8:11 am

  
  
  

  Well, I’d argue that reaching the CL final with Leverkusen was a bigger achievement than doing the same with Chelsea obviously. And should the multi-billion Chelsea squad win it in the next three years with Ballack I’d still rank Ballack’s achievement with Leverkusen higher. Anyway, I don’t like Roman’s empire so I could do without a Chelsea Champions League triumph, but at least it would end Ballack’s entirely statistical misery.

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• Martin |  July 23rd, 2008 at 8:55 am

  
  
  

  Actually, that would make him second best at being second best. Which would make him better at being second than Maldini.. Paradox!

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• Rob |  July 23rd, 2008 at 9:22 am

  
  
  

  Martin – I’m glad someone got the point I was driving at!

  Seriously though folks – obviously there is are bigger losers in football, and Maldini has been playing in a very successful side for a hell of a long time, so its only natural.

  I just thought it was interesting who had picked up the most runner up medals.

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• Jan |  July 23rd, 2008 at 9:53 am

  
  
  

  BTW: did you have a hunch that Maldini could have picked up more runner up medals, or is there some database you can feed with such a request?

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• Gianfranco |  July 23rd, 2008 at 4:54 pm

  
  
  

  I would take all Maldini’s second place medals to reap the benefits of all his first place medals.

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• diana |  July 23rd, 2008 at 9:56 pm

  
  
  

  Rob, that is definitely one interesting statistic (even after I read what the link to the Guardian’s The Knowledge has to say). I definitely remembered Maldini was part of the winning-AC Milan side in the 2007 Champions League final but…he got 17 runner-up medals?

  Whatever they say about learning something new everyday.

  Posted from Singapore

  

• Rob |  July 24th, 2008 at 5:10 am

  
  
  

  Well yeah, I think we’d all take being second 17 times, if it meant the countless amount of times he has lifted trophies for Milan. Although he was agonisingly unlucky for Italy – a penalty shootout and a Golden Goal.

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• Lissette Evil Blue |  August 26th, 2008 at 5:06 pm

  
  
  

  be a long time runner up to be a big timer winner then this people give me hope. Thats why when it comes to winning trophies and that tipe of shit I don’t give a f**k.

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