Nine years down the lane, Ghana international Kevin-Prince Boateng has shed new light on his troubles after his tackle on Michael Ballack during an English FA Cup fixture between his former club Portsmouth and Chelsea.
Boateng's tackle ruled Die Mannschaft's captain out of the 2010 Fifa World Cup in South Africa.
A month before the global showpiece and with German-born Boateng having just switched international allegiance to the country of his father, he came under intense criticism from the German public and media for an allegedly 'deliberate and malicious challenge'.
Interestingly, the Black Stars were billed to face Germany at the World Cup, having drawn Germany alongside Australia and Serbia in Group D. This took the script to a different level.
"This question [about what such an incident does to you] is easy to answer: It destroys you," Boateng, currently on the books of Barcelona told Goal.
"But I'm a fighter. I've always reminded myself that I'm a boy from Wedding (a district in Berlin) and there's nothing able to pull me down.
"But I have to say that I was really bad for a while, but then comes the point where it gets better again.
"I tried to move on and somehow forget about it."
Boateng was born to a German mother so he represented the Europeans at various youth levels before pledging his future to the Black Stars.
At the World Cup, Kevin-Prince and his younger brother Jerome were on opposing sides, a record they took to an all-new level when they faced each other again at the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.
Germany won the first match in South Africa 1-0 while the second fixture ended in a 2-2 draw in Brazil.
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