In the weeks since, there had even been conjecture that Ballack, despite his stature as an undisputed star of German football, would never again play for the national team.

The 20 year-old German starlet was also named Young Player of the World Cup, capping an incredible tournament in South Africa, having scored five goals from his five shots on target.

Back then the living idols of the German soccer team were AD hoc scanned stereoscopically to reproduce them as 10 centimeter large, marketable plastic miniatures in China.