Emilio Ballack, the teenage son of the former Germany and Chelsea footballer Michael Ballack, died in the early hours of this morning after reportedly being crushed by a quad bike in Portugal.
Emilio, 18, was holidaying at the family’s home when the tragic accident happened at about 2am in Tróia, a peninsula near Setúbal, just south of Lisbon.
Chelsea, with whom Ballack won the Premier League and three FA Cups between 2006 and 2010, confirmed that the youngster had been killed as they led tributes.
“Everybody associated with Chelsea Football Club is shocked and saddened to learn of the death of Emilio Ballack at the terribly young age of 18,” the club said. “All our thoughts are with his father, Michael, and his family at this sad time.”
According to reports in Portugal, firefighters tried to rescue Emilio from under the vehicle after it had flipped and fallen on top of him.
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Medics made desperate attempts to revive him but he was declared dead at the scene, on private land owned by the family. The quad bike is said to have been designed for public roads.
Neither Ballack, 44, nor his former partner Simone Lambe, the mother of Emilio, have made any official public comment on the accident.
Emilio last week posted photographs to his Instagram account from Portugal showing him on a beach with family. His parents married in 2008 before divorcing four years later and had two other sons: Louis, a year older than Emilio, and the youngest, Jordi, three years his junior.
In July Louis posted an image of himself sitting on a quad bike in Tróia with the caption: “Quads where [sic] flipped, ferries where missed, taste buds where explored and injuries where common.”
Ballack is widely considered one of Germany’s greatest footballers, winning 98 caps for his country and scoring 42 goals from midfield.
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He was part of the Germany side who finished as runners-up at the 2002 World Cup and the 2008 European Championship, and won three league titles in Germany with Bayern Munich.
Ballack moved to Chelsea from Bayern in 2006 and spent four years at the west London club, where in 2008 he helped to guide them to the Champions League final for their first time in their history, only to lose on penalties to Manchester United in Moscow.
