Bike to the future for Ballack.

(From The Daily Star)

Byline: DANNY FULLBROOK

Chelsea 2 Fulham 2 MICHAEL BALLACK has a string of top-of-the-range sports cars - his latest a black and white Ferrari. Moritz Volz uses a fold-up push bike, or sometimes walks, to get to home games at Craven Cottage. One is the captain of Germany and signed a deal worth GBP120,000 a week last summer with Chelsea, landing a GBP6m signing-on fee. The other can't make it into the German squad, was cast aside by Arsenal but picked up by Fulham and is a David Hasselhoff fan. One played like a clappedout old banger on Saturday, while the other purred his way through the game, adding bite and energy to his midfield role - despite playing out of position. It was Volz, and not Ballack, who put in a man-of-thematch performance and celebrated winning GBP15,000 for charity from Barclays for scoring the Premiership's 15,000th goal. Chelsea's defence was rubbish all afternoon, but part of the problem is that they are not helped by certain members of their midfield at the moment - namely Ballack. In an horrendous mix-up for Carlos Bocanegra's equalising goal for Fulham with six minutes left, it was Ballack who had the final opportunity to clear the danger. Instead, he mis-kicked, allowing Brian McBride to shoot and push the ball into the path of the American defender. Jose Mourinho slaughtered his players afterwards, mainly the defence and attack, but he should have looked closer at the player he staked his reputation on in the summer. 'The Special One' shrugs off the fact Andriy Shevchenko is playing badly because he was chosen by Roman Abramovich. However, he will not have a word said against Ballack, despite some alarm from within the Chelsea squad over his recent displays. Mourinho eventually praised Fulham for their efforts, but he was as ...