A senior play gets injured and the replacement fills in admirably. What happens when the senior player returns? If it’s the Australian cricket team, no matter how great the performance the senior player will automatically win back his spot.
However, Germany’s stand-in captain Phillip Lahm has stirred up a major controversy one the eve of their crucial World Cup semifinal against Spain in Durban on Wednesday by stating that he wants the post full-time, something that hasn’t gone down well with regular skipper Michael Ballack — who left the team camp abruptly on Monday amid speculation that the right-back’s comments may have been the reason for his departure.
Ballack was ruled out of the tournament at the eleventh hour after injuring his ankle in May. The former Chelsea midfielder, who recently returned to former club Bayer Leverkusen, joined the team ahead of their quarterfinal against Argentina here and was seen cheering the team vociferously as they ran riot against Diego Maradona’s men.
However things turned sour on Monday when Lahm stated his intention to carry on as the leader of Joachim Loew’s youthful side post-World Cup.
In his comments to German daily Bild, Lahm said: “It’s obvious that I’d like to keep the captain’s armband. The job gives me a great deal of enjoyment. Why should I then give it up by choice?
“If you do the job out there on the pitch and you have it under control, as in my case, you want more. You want more responsibility. You want to take care of it all. That is the case with me,” he added.
Manager of the team Oliver Bierhoff, who scored a golden goal in the Euro96 final, played down the incident while addressing reporters at the team’s base camp in Erasmia and said Ballack still remains the captain of the team.
“There is no dissent whatsoever, not even a hint of conflict,” he said. “It has been discussed in the team council: Ballack is still the captain — and Lahm is our World Cup captain,” said the former Die Mannschaft striker.
Asked to explain the experienced midfielder’s sudden departure, Bierhoff said, “It is an unfortunate coincidence that Ballack’s departure and Lahm’s statement coincided. Ballack visited the team in Sicily before the tournament and it was always agreed that he would visit for the quarterfinal.
“It emerged that Michael didn’t want to take out any resources from the team. He knew that if his rehab was to proceed he needed more time from the staff... he decided that it was better to continue treatment in Luxembourg,” was Bierhoff’s take.