When Matthäus wanted to make Ailton a German
After exiting the EM 2004 European Championship in Portugal during the group stage, Rudi Voeller resigned as team manager for the German Football Association (DFB). Germany spent a month searching for a new Bundestrainer. One unusual candidate emerged during this time: Lothar Matthäus.
In the summer of 2004, Germany was searching for a new Bundestrainer. The EM in Portugal had eliminated the DFB team under Rudi Voeller after the group stage. After the sudden exit at the 2002 World Cup in Japan and South Korea, where the national team reached the final against Brazil, the premature elimination was a new, negative peak in German football history. After the tournament, Rudi Voeller had announced his resignation as team manager. Now, the position needed to be filled. One of the potential candidates was Lothar Matthäus.
Although the then coach of the Hungarian national team was not the preferred candidate among the leading men at the DFB - especially President Gerhard Mayer-Vorfelder ("He played his power, which he still had, fully against me," Matthäus) had other plans in mind - the media actively promoted the name of the record national player for about a month.
And the reason for this was particularly significant: Lothar Matthäus could envision himself as the Bundestrainer at that time, unlike today.
Seemed absurd - and on second thought?
And since at that time the 43-year-old had Franz Beckenbauer as a powerful spokesperson behind him, Matthäus developed some ideas for the future of the German national team during the weeks he was considered a potential candidate.
A advantage for Matthäus at the time: Hungary had defeated the DFB team directly before the EM in Kaiserslautern under the leadership of the man from Herzogenaurach not only with a 2:0 score but also with an idea- and tempo-rich game, which convinced many. Until one day, the press presented an idea from Matthäus that seemed absurd on first glance but not so much on second. The German national team's offense was causing concern at the time, and so a Brazilian player came into Matthäus' focus.
Ailton had just won the German championship with SV Werder Bremen and was considering a move to FC Schalke 04. For Werder, the Brazilian had scored respectable 88 goals in 169 games - and had secured the top scorer cannon of the 2003/04 season with 28 goals. The best German striker at the time was a certain Martin Max with 20 goals, who had never played a serious role in the plans for the German national team. And then Lothar Matthäus, in the midst of the Bundestrainer selection process of the DFB, made a statement that caused headlines: "I would play Ailton for Germany!"
Ailton shows interest, but the DFB decides otherwise
Unlike his predecessor Rudi Voeller, who always demanded that a German national player "should already have a little German in them," Matthäus referred to valid FIFA regulations for football naturalizations (the Brazilian was playing in Germany since 1998) and said: "Moreover, Ailton has rejected offers from Spain and Portugal. That shows he wants to be in Germany." By the way, this is still the case today. In the year 2021, Ailton returned to Bremen, and in March 2023, Ailton announced his comeback at TSV Bassum.
In the summer of 2004, the poacher, who harbored a deep love for Germany, didn't hide it and was fiery and passionate about a call-up to the German National Team: "It would be a dream for Germany at the 2006 World Cup in Germany to storm through." However, it seems that this was never meant to be - as Lothar Matthäus did not receive the job as the German national team coach.
Just a few days after Matthäus' suggestion to make Ailton a German, Frankfurt presented Jürgen Klinsmann as the new DFB coach. And he probably never seriously considered this absurd idea. In fact, one never heard anything about Ailton's naturalization as a German again. This may have been due to Ailton's later, less successful, sports career.
Despite some opposition, the media heavily pushed Lothar Matthäus as a potential Bundestrainer candidate for the DFB following Rudi Voeller's resignation. With Franz Beckenbauer backing him, Matthäus suggested bringing Brazillian striker Ailton into the German Football-Nationalteam, as Ailton had expressed interest and rejected offers from other countries, showing his commitment to Germany.
