ESPN FC is counting down the 20 greatest World Cup players of all time, with the identity of the No. 1 player announced on April 18.
Name: Lothar Herbert Matthaeus
Nationality: Germany
Position: Midfielder/Sweeper
Clubs: Borussia Moenchengladbach (1979-84), Bayern Munich (1984-88), Inter Milan (1988-92), Bayern Munich (1992-2000), NY/NJ Metrostars (2000)
International career: 150 matches, 23 goals
World Cup participation: 1982, 1986, 1990, 1994, 1998 - played 25, scored 6
Finest World Cup moment: Captaining West Germany to 1990 title
Roll of honour: Winner 1990, Runner-up 1982, 1986
“He’s the best rival I ever had. I guess that’s enough to define him,” Diego Maradona wrote in his autobiography about the German who was his immediate midfield adversary in two World Cup finals.
The personal battle finished Lothar Matthaeus 1-1 Diego Maradona, with West Germany’s title at Italia '90 equalising Argentina’s at Mexico ’86. In Italy, Matthaeus was by far the outstanding player of the tournament, his athleticism, power and determination making him the apex of a box-to-box midfielder.
Matthaeus also holds the record for most games played at the World Cup. His 25 matches played over five tournaments (1982 to 1998) is probably unbeatable. Only one other player has appeared in five, Mexico’s Antonio Carbajal, a goalkeeper who participated in just 11 matches from 1950 to 1966.
From the pair of matches played in 1982 as a young defensive midfielder to his final appearance as a deep-lying defender at France '98, each World Cup saw a different Matthaeus. However, that constant presence did not necessarily make German hearts grow fonder; for all his achievements, Matthaeus inspires a mixed reception -- at best.
“The strange thing is his reputation is much bigger outside Germany,” says ESPN FC writer Uli Hesse, who once ran Matthaeus’ website for him and was his regular ghostwriter. “People outside Germany tend to focus on what he has done on the pitch, but as a German, you cannot have one without the other. There is another side to him.”
Through the years, Matthaeus has fallen out with just about everybody, from a civil war with Jurgen Klinsmann over the Bayern Munich captaincy that stopped him playing at Euro ’96 to a row over a Bayern testimonial that led to club president Uli Hoeness saying he would not even employ Matthaeus as a “greenkeeper.”
“He’s one of the all-time greats, but there is always a but. That’s what everyone will say about him in Germany,” says Hesse.
Since retiring from playing, the former captain has become an outsider to German football. “It’s a little bit tragic, the Matthaeus story,” Walter Straten, sports editor of Bild, tells ESPN FC.
The player of Italia '90 is how Matthaeus is best remembered -- a goal against Yugoslavia in West Germany’s opening match his finest highlight. Setting off from deep in his own half, he powered on, a shimmy beyond a pair of Yugoslav defenders buying him space to lash in a left-footed shot to score his second of the game and the Germans’ third.
“That’s probably a key moment to realise what he could do, and it kick-started the whole tournament for Germany,” says Hesse. “We knew where we stood, once that ball went in. Everything was going to be OK.”
“He was great,” says Straten, who puts Germany’s eventual triumph down to the combination of Matthaeus and coach Franz Beckenbauer. “Beckenbauer is not a football teacher, theory was not his thing, but he gave his team the power to win a game and fight to the last minute. Matthaeus was not as technical a player as Beckenbauer, but he played with real heart.”
Matthaeus was then an Inter Milan player, having transferred in 1988 from Bayern.
“When he left Germany for Italy, he was seen as a failed prodigy who had gone for a last big paycheque,” says Hesse. “But at that time, we didn’t know that he would play forever. He had become a different person, a different player.”
With Matthaeus dominating midfield battles, West Germany’s progress to the final was serene, save for the famous semifinal with England in Turin that was won on penalties after an epic end-to-end 1-1 draw. A rematch with Argentina, who had beaten them in the final of Mexico ’86, awaited in Rome’s showpiece.
In the Azteca, Matthaeus had man-marked Maradona at a time the Argentine was playing at an extraterrestrial height and had done a fine job, right until the point Maradona escaped to play in Jorge Burruchaga for the winning goal of a 3-2 thriller.
Rome was different. Maradona was a reduced force, and Matthaeus utterly dominated him. In truth, it was a poor final, won 1-0 by an Andreas Brehme penalty that the skipper passed up the chance to take. He had previously converted the single penalty to win a quarterfinal against Czechoslovakia.
“There was the story that Matthaeus had a problem with his boots, that he didn’t feel comfortable after changing his boot after one of his studs had broken,” says Hesse. “There was also the story that he didn’t want to shoulder the responsibility, and this was a front, the real reason. Brehme has always said that Matthaeus said he didn’t feel right.”
Brehme slotted home. Captain marvel Matthaeus could lift the trophy while Maradona sobbed tears of disappointment.
Matthaeus would return, but as a very different player after suffering a cruciate ligament rupture playing for Inter in 1991. He inherited the sweeper role that was once Beckenbauer’s but was not nearly as successful as his mentor. USA '94 saw Germany shocked 2-1 by Bulgaria in the quarterfinals and at France '98 by Croatia, who ran riot 3-0 in a quarterfinal that cruelly exposed the slowness of the ageing captain.
It was a sad way to end the longest World Cup career of all, one that in 1990 scaled the very heights.