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Mourinho confirms Ballack arrival
![]() Ballack will be unveiled as a Chelsea player at a press conference in Monday. LONDON, England -- Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho has confirmed that Bayern Munich midfielder Michael Ballack will join the club for next season. Chelsea have called a press conference at Stamford Bridge on Monday at which they will officially announce the signing of the Germany captain. Ballack is out of contract at the Bundesliga champions and arrives on a free transfer, although if reports are correct Chelsea are set to make him one of the Premiership's biggest earners. Mourinho said: "I'm happy and very proud because he chose Chelsea for different reasons, and I'm happy with the conversation I had with him and that's the reason he decided to come here." "He believes in us, he believes in Chelsea, he believes we can have success, he believes in the Champions League, he believes in 3-4 years success for him can be achieved here in a crucial part of his career. "He chose Chelsea and we are very happy, and I think also English football should be happy to have such a player playing in the Premiership." Chelsea's Portuguese manager has said he wants to make three signings this summer and Ballack appears to be the first of those. AC Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko, who is considering leaving the Italian club, has also been linked with the Premiership champions. Inter Milan's Adriano and Corinthians star Carlos Tevez have also been heavily linked with moves to Stamford Bridge. Ballack's imminent arrival at the London club, who according to some reports have offered him a £130,000 a week salary, ends doubts that he would ever sign for the Premiership champions. The 29-year-old midfielder appeared to be stalling on signing for Chelsea although recently Mourinho strongly suggested the German should announce his future destination before the start of the World Cup on June 9. That decision will please Mourinho, who is keen to build up his team for another Champions League campaign which, this season, ended before they had got to the quarterfinals stage. It will also be good news for Ballack, who will go into the World Cup unburdened by doubts over his future. The move to London will be Ballack's first footballing foray outside his native Germany, something he announced he wished to experience. Born in the former East Germany, he began his professional career at division two side Chemnitz. He then went on to play for Kaiserslautern and Bayer Leverkusen before moving to Bayern Munich in 2002. Ballack had said on Friday: "The time has come for me to make this move. "When I came to Bayern, general manager Uli Hoeness told me 'When you're 29, you can still move abroad'. "I turned down an offer from Real Madrid at the time, which was very attractive." Shevchenko's arrival may now follow, although Mourinho was understandably cautious when asked about the Ukrainian striker. "I think it's a natural thing to have a big striker to come in to join to make this group even stronger," said Mourinho. "I cannot say if it's Shevchenko or not because he's a player who belongs to Milan. They have a contract of three or four years with him and they can say the same thing we are saying to (William) Gallas: no offer and no way of leaving. "This is a power that a club can have when they have a contract with a player." Frenchman Gallas has upset Chelsea in the past week announcing that he had set his mind on leaving Chelsea. Mourinho added: "I'm optimistic first of all to keep every player important for us and after that I'm optimistic to bring two or three players of big quality."
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