Ballack sorry he yelled obscenities about Cologne through megaphone

Contrary to popular belief, Michael Ballack does still occasionally play football. After one such instance last Sunday -- Bayer Leverkusen's 2-0 win over Schalke -- Ballack trudged over to the Leverkusen fans, took hold of a megaphone (video here) and led them in a chant that included the phrase "S*** FC Cologne!" Even though the day's match was against Schalke and not rivals Cologne.

Though the Leverkusen fans obviously loved it, many other people kind of didn't. So it was time for Ballack to issue an apology on his club's official website, which went like this (via Eurosport):

"It was certainly not clever of me to shout the comments about Cologne.

"This can happen in the euphoria of victory, but it should not. Therefore I have no problem apologising to the fans of Cologne and to the club."

Yes, unfortunate things can be said when a 34-year-old former captain of his country is in the throws of euphoria. In fact, you should all just be happy that he didn't shout what first popped into his head, "I hope Philipp Lahm and Jogi Low both eat spoiled shellfish and die slow, painful deaths from a combination of food poisoning and shame! But mostly shame!"

Photo: Reuters