Marko Van Ginkel: The throne heir to Michael Ballack?

When Marko Van Ginkel first arrived at Chelsea in June, I doubted that he would continue to develop and contribute to the team for next season. So, i though sending him out loan for a season to get regular football in the Dutch league with Vitesse would help him to be selected for the Netherlands squad for 2014 World Cup next summer. But, I was proven wrong by the wonder kid as his form in pre-season games shows he can be one of the major assets of our squad for the season set to begin in a matter of two weeks. And his form and style of play brings to comparison to former fan favorite and legendary German midfielder, Michael Ballack.
The two have amazing strength in fitness and are very good box-to-box midfielders with a great passing range to their game. Marko Van Ginkel provided great energy with going forward and also pressing high on opponent midfielders to not give them a space to create danger. That is exactly the type of player you need as deep lying or holding midfielder in front of the defense. Marko Van Ginkel can improve on his areal abilities and his physique as he progresses with age but, from what we have seen so far in the games he have played, he has many similarities to the former German captain.
And considering his age, Marko Van Ginkel, 20 can cement himself as one of the greatest midfielders in the club’s history and he can do more of what Ballack have done in his 4 years at Stamford Bridge. Ballack arrived from Bayern Munich for FREE transfer in summer of 2006. And since then, he has been a folklore of the midfield for Chelsea for each manager he played under, starting from Mourinho all the way to Carlo Ancelloti. His last game as we all remember is the FA Cup final 2010 against Portsmouth where he was injured and lost out on captaining his country at the 2010 World Cup.
Marko Van Ginkel can do more of the same for his country as he is the next generation of stars in midfield to replace the likes Van Bommel and Nigel De Jong. He and Strootman, another promising young midfielder who just signed for Roma in recent weeks, can take their spot and perform to the highest level in next summer’s World Cup. Van Ginkel had been praised by his new manager Jose Mourinho for his work rate while on the pitch, which is kind of similar to Ramires’ tireless, turbo like energy to run up and down the pitch throughout the 90 mins.
On top of that, Van Ginkel has a great vision to assist striker just like Ballack and he was being played as a No. 10 behind a striker last season at Vitesse. He scored 8 goals last season from that position and when he has the freedom to go further up the pitch, there is a great chance he will be involved in creating scoring chances or scoring for himself. Van Ginkel has a good mentality and aggression despite his leaner frame compared to Michael Ballack. But, he can develop on that aspect and as Mourinho said, physically and Mentally, he is ready to play in the Premier League.
He and Ramires played together a couple of times in midfield and the partnership is promising for the next couple of years as the Brazilian will put in a huge amounts of experience under his sleeve as he is 26 now and Van Ginkel can take the likes of Ballack and Frank Lampard who will more than likely finish his career at Chelsea to continue the legacy of the great midfielders in Chelsea’s history.
What do you make of the similarity between Marko Van Ginkel and Michael Ballack? Leave your opinions below and thanks for reading. KTBFFH!!!