Gerald Asamoah has hit out at his German team-mates

Former German international striker Gerald Asamoah has criticised ex-captain Michael Ballack  and his German team-mates for failing to come to his defence after he was racially attacked in 2006. 

The 34-year-old, who became the first African-born player to play for Germany, had described in his autobiography how he was racially abused while playing for Schalke against Hansa Rostock’s reserve side in the German Cup in 2006.

Asamoah said the abuse was highly publicized at the time and had been so bad the referee wanted to abandon the game at half-time.

But Asamoah says Michael Ballack and his German team-mates failed to find it appropriate to speak against the attacks on him.

“The fact is I would have wished at the time for a reaction from former players in the national team and especially from the captain (Ballack) -a clear statement against incidents like these,” Asamoah says in the book which goes on sale on January 14.

“That this did not happen really disappointed me and gives me cause for thought.”

Asamoah, 34, who now plays for Bundesliga side Greuther Fuerth, said he had thought about quitting the national team at the time.

“What sense is there, I thought, in playing for a country whose fans don’t want me?,” he said.