Michael Ballack was forced to fight back the tears as he spoke about his 18-year-old son’s death for the first time.
The Chelsea and Germany legend’s world was turned upside down in 2021 when Emilio, 18, passed away after his quad bike tipped backwards and crushed him following a family barbecue.
Police said the teenager had been riding on an uneven piece of land when the bike rolled backwards and fell on top of him. Firefighters had to pull him free of the wreck before medics tried to revive him, but their efforts proved in vain and he was pronounced dead at the scene, near the family’s holiday home at the Villas do Mar estate in Portugal.
Ballack opened up on the ordeal in an interview with Sky titled ‘My Story,’ and he was asked how he dealt with the loss.
After taking a long pause and a deep breath, the midfielder said, in German: ‘Difficult,’ before pausing again and repeating the phrase.
He added: ‘You can’t imagine it. You can’t even describe it in words. It’s a process of repression. Everyone deals with it differently. I can hardly talk about him at all. I’d like to say much more, but it overwhelms me emotionally.’
Chelsea and Germany legend Michael Ballack was forced to fight back the tears as he spoke about the death of his son
Emilio (right), then 18, died after being crushed by a quad bike outside his family’s holiday home in Portugal
Tears began to fill Ballack’s eyes, before he added: ‘That’s why it’s a process of denial, where you try to cope through everyday life, through many things that motivate you – work, family, your other sons.
‘Of course, you love your children more than anything and want to give them as much stability, warmth, and security in life as possible. That’s the responsibility you bear as a parent.
‘Such a loss naturally intensifies that even more. Of course, you then have greater fears. What else could happen?’
An officer told Portuguese media at the time of the incident: ‘The accident happened at the family home. The quad rider wasn’t on a public road and his was the only vehicle involved.’
However, respected Portuguese daily Jornal de Noticias reported that Emilio was reversing out of the property on his quad when he had his fatal accident.
He is believed to have lost control of the vehicle during the manoeuvre out of the family villa and ended up on a public road with the quad on top of him after falling, the paper reported. His grandmother is said to have raised the alarm.
Sources said Emilio had enjoyed a family barbecue at the villa earlier in the evening. He was holidaying there with his father, two brothers and Michael’s own parents.
Emilio was the middle of Ballack’s three sons – born in 2002 to then-girlfriend Simone Lambe, who Ballack would marry in 2008 before their divorce in 2012. Eldest son Louis was born in 2001, and youngest Jordi was born in 2005.
Emilio is pictured in his last Instagram photo uploaded before the accident five years ago
Ballack was pushed further in the interview, asked how his perspective on life changed after the accident.
He said: ‘Life is precious. That the life we lead is absolutely privileged. That luck and misfortune also play a major role. Fate. You can call it what you want, but things just happen.
‘Despite all the talk of fate, I naturally want to face it. That gives me strength again, this task, and at the same time, the realisation that life goes on.’
