Former Germany captain Michael Ballack has said he could be playing his last season at Bayer Leverkusen and has hinted at another move abroad.
“At the moment I assume that it will be my last season at Leverkusen,” Ballack said in an interview with Sky TV to be broadcast Friday.
Leverkusen are playing at Ballack’s former club Kaiserslautern in the Bundesliga Friday evening, and the midfielder said he had “a gut feeling” it would be his last game at the Betzenberg.
However Ballack, whose two—year—contract with Leverkusen ends after the current season, said he would like to carry on playing at a high level, indicating he might favour a move abroad.
“I still feel good, but I don’t know yet what I will do. If I stay healthy I want to play another one or two years at a good level,” he said.
Ballack is in his second spell at Leverkusen, a club he left for Bayern Munich in 2002 before spending four years at Chelsea between 2006 and 2010.
He lost his place in the Germany side after missing the 2010 World Cup through injury and initially struggled to establish himself in the Leverkusen team.
Ballack said he had gone through “a difficult time,” adding: “What most affected me was that it was said I didn’t have the footballing class and that I could no longer make a mark on today’s football.”
