When Lothar Matthäus toppled the Beckenbauer legend from his throne
30 years ago, the whole of footballing Germany was watching the then 32-year-old Lothar Matthäus: with his 104th international match for Germany, he overtook the legend Franz Beckenbauer. No problem for the "Kaiser" - even if he would never have expected it at the start of Matthäus' career.
The message from a major sporting goods manufacturer from Herzogenaurach was clear 30 years ago: "King topples Kaiser". At the time, Lothar Matthäus was about to play his 104th international match. With the game on November 17, 1993 in the Müngersdorf Stadium in Cologne and against Brazil, Lothar Matthäus overtook the previous record holder Franz Beckenbauer. Many thought at the time that his successful career was slowly coming to an end. But far from it. It would be almost another seven years before the boy from Herzogenaurach took off his jersey with the eagle for the last time - after a 20-year career in the DFB squad.
Back then, in the summer of 1980, it had all started very tentatively. And Lothar Matthäus actually had to be forced into his good fortune. Because the 19-year-old up-and-coming star was a bit of a bitch. And so captain Ennatz Dietz made a decision at the European Championships against the Netherlands when Germany were supposedly 3-0 up: he wanted to help the young talent make his first appearance in the national jersey. Dietz feigned an injury and allowed Matthäus to make his debut. The fact that the game only ended 3:2 in Germany's favor after shaky final minutes was not necessarily down to the inexperienced national team rookie Matthäus alone, as Dietz once recounted with a grin, but he was still at fault for the 3:1 penalty.
But Dietz also had something else to say about Matthäus: "Lothar cried bitterly on the day he was nominated. I stood next to him and was completely helpless. At first I thought he was shedding tears of joy, but then he didn't stop at all. I put my arm around his neck and asked him very gently what was wrong. Lothar looked at me with reddened eyes and sobbed: 'But my girlfriend has already booked our vacation for the European Championship ...'"
Lothar Matthäus, the newspaper messenger
Matthäus was worried about his nomination at the time for financial rather than sporting reasons. After all, canceling the trip would cost money, he reasoned. And that didn't sit well with today's record international player. After all, he had learned to earn his own money at an early age, as he recounted on the occasion of the 104th match: "I started delivering newspapers when I was ten years old. On my bike, four hours a day, in the snow and rain. That was good and easy money, an hourly wage of between 13 and 14 marks. I only stopped shortly before I moved to Mönchengladbach, when I was already 18."
The story shows that even the little football-loving boy from Herzogenaurach knew what real work meant. Because the career of Lothar Matthäus is indeed that of a fighter. Before his record international match for the German national team back in Cologne, he proudly said that he had an "unbridled ambition, an absolute winning mentality". Matthäus continued: "I was always the smallest and was teased by the bigger players because of that. But I showed them what I was made of and was then really proud when I was always picked first when the teams on the football pitch were chosen."
Matthäus still holds numerous records
Of course, the "King" also compared himself to the "Kaiser" thirty years ago and stated that Franz Beckenbauer had been "born with everything", but that he himself had to "work hard" for everything. Interestingly, when looking back on Matthäus' early years, Beckenbauer described him as "a jumping ginkerl, as we say in Bavaria. A light-footed brother. He wanted to be involved wherever there was action."
Presumably a character trait of Lothar Matthäus that was to put the odd obstacle in his way later in his professional career. But thirty years ago, this was not yet foreseeable. Beckenbauer was full of praise: "He's a decent lad, he deserves the title of record international player. If anyone begrudges him these titles, it's me." In return, Matthäus returned the favor with kind words about the "Kaiser": "Franz is the shining light of German soccer, he remains number one. Franz is the emperor, and who likes to shake the emperor's throne?"
After his successful record-breaking match against Brazil (2:1) on November 17, 1993, Lothar Matthäus continued with the national team for another seven years with many ups and downs. Matthäus played his 150th international match on June 20, 2000 at 8:45 pm in Rotterdam's De Kuip stadium in what ended up being a humiliating game against Portugal.
This meant that he had played for the national team for twenty years, longer than any other German international, and was the only German international to have played in five World Cups to date. Presumably a record for the ages - for the man who, when asked what had made him the record international player, answered so wisely and modestly: ambition and luck.
Source: www.ntv.de
