Editing Michael Ballack (section)

==Early life==
Ballack was born on 26 September 1976 in [[Görlitz]],<ref name=nearlyman>{{cite news |url=https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2013/jun/05/michael-ballack-nearly-man-genius |title=Michael Ballack: a nearly man or an undisputed midfield genius? |date=5 June 2013 |access-date=6 June 2013 |newspaper=[[The Guardian]] |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100216115834/http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/blog/2013/jun/05/michael-ballack-nearly-man-genius |archive-date=16 February 2010 |url-status=dead}}</ref> a town in [[Bezirk Dresden]], [[East Germany]] (now [[Saxony]], Germany). He is the only child of Stephan Ballack, an engineer, and his wife Karin, a secretary. The family moved to [[Chemnitz]] (then called Karl-Marx-Stadt) when Ballack was very young and it was there that he started to play football. He first began playing football for sports community.