Restless monster

Ballon d'Or winner Lothar Matthaus turns 65 on March 21

This defender and midfielder (yes, it happens) practiced the most attacking football. He practiced tirelessly. 249 goals in his career - not every striker can boast of such an indicator. And in terms of the number of participations in world championships, he is in the first row. Together with Messi, Ronaldo, Buffun, Marquez and Carbajal. He has five world championships under his belt as a German. And five official marriages (he also played tricks off the field, bless you). Yes, he never won the Champions League, but even without the big-eared trophy he has something to be proud of. He won almost three dozen different titles (team and individual). Former Bayern coach Dettmar Kramer said Matthäus was “a true playmaker and the epitome of West Germany’s game.” And Diego Maradona in his autobiography called Lothar “the best opponent he ever fought against.” In honor of the anniversary of the legendary master, Novaya chose the most interesting and little-known facts of his long football journey. And not only.

• Lothar's first boots were given to him by Rudolf Dassler himself, the founder of Puma, whose office was located next to the Matthaus family's house. Subsequently, the future world champion, who played ball with the offspring of the famous entrepreneur as a child, entered into a long-term contract with this brand until the end.

• Lothar is an interior designer and decorator by training. He was forced to get this specialty by his parents, who believed that “football alone is not enough to be happy.”

• However, it was my mother who often played the role of goalkeeper, so that the heir could practice his signature shots on the lawn.

• The schoolboy had a lot of complexes about his short stature and poor physical fitness. As a result, he managed to stretch up to 174 cm, and running helped him a lot in terms of endurance.

• The first club of the Erlangen native was Herzogenaurach. In 22 matches, the teenager hit the opponent's goal 20 times.

• Due to his capricious and eccentric character, the boy almost did not play in various teenage teams. He simply wasn't invited.

• Lothar was a fan of Borussia Munchengladbach and got into this club thanks to his father, who knew the team manager Hans Novak and through him arranged for his son to watch. 18-year-old Matthäus immediately attracted the attention of coach Jupp Heynckess.

* In his first professional season, he reached the UEFA Cup final with Borussia. Moreover, the young midfielder distinguished himself both in the semi-final return match with Stuttgart and in the final home match with Eintracht. True, the “black-white-greens” lost away and returned to Munchengladbach without the cup.

• In the same year, Lothar made his debut in the German national team and went to the European championship in Italy. Moreover, coach Jupp Derwall included him in the squad, despite the fact that the prodigy boldly violated the sports regime.

• At Euro 1980, the young man played only one meeting in the group stage with the Dutch, in which he scored a penalty into his own goal. But he nevertheless received a gold medal.

• He will also receive a black mark from the police: he will be caught for drunk driving and will lose his license for eight months.

• In the 1984 German Cup final, Matthäus missed the penalty kick and Borussia lost to Bayern. And in the summer, Lothar will sign an agreement with... “Bavaria”, and the fans of the “foals” will call him a traitor.

• It's funny that 15 years later, the Bavarian Lothar will miss the post-match lottery again. In the key cup battle against Werder. But he will not join the “musicians” camp, despite the jokes of the fans.

• In general, Matthäus won 15 trophies with Bayern (he played for them from 1984 to 1988 and from 1992 to 2000). However, he did not submit to the two most prestigious finals.

* In 1987, the Germans surrendered to Porto in the European Cup final. And in 1999, the main club trophy of the Old World was snatched from the clutches of Bayern in stoppage time by Manchester United. It was then that match commentator Vladimir Maslachenko uttered the legendary phrase: “Dudes lie down, but the greats triumph.” True, Lothar himself watched the end of the fight on the bench. Experts blamed coach Ottmar Hitzfeld for the defeat, who for some reason replaced Matthäus in the endgame...

• It is noteworthy that that season he was recognized as the best football player in Germany. At that time, Lothar was 38 years old.

• ...In 1984, Matthäus became the main player of the German national team. But at the European Championship in France, the Germans performed unsuccessfully - they did not make it past the group stage.

• But at the 1986 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer’s team reached the decisive match. By the way, in the 1/8 finals, a goal named after Matthäus will take the team to the quarterfinals, where the midfielder will confidently score his kick against the Mexicans in the penalty shootout. He will hold off Michel Platini in the semi-finals. But in the golden battle with the Argentines, although Lothar did not allow Maradona to score, all three goals ended up in Schumacher’s goal, including due to his miscalculations.

• In 1988, the midfielder moved to Inter Milan, which paid $5.5 million for him.

* And the Nerazzurri immediately won the Scudetto. Nine years later. And four rounds before the finish. The fate of the championship title was decided by Lothar Herbert Matthäus, who scored the winning goal for Napoli. By the way, in that tournament Inter scored 58 points in 34 matches, which was a record for the Italian championship (let me remind you that in those days two points were awarded for a win).

• In 1991, Matthäus would bring Inter the UEFA Cup. He will upset Partizan at home and away in the 1/8 finals. In the quarterfinals, his goal will finally kill Atalanta. In the semi-final against Sporting at the San Siro, his penalty shot would be decisive. He will light up his name on the scoreboard in the first main battle with Roma. By the way, that May performance was officiated by Soviet referee Alexey Spirin.

• The midfielder will earn his second UEFA Cup as Bayern captain. In 1996.

* A rare fact: when Inter sold Matthäus back to Bayern, they made him promise (this was documented) that he would never move to any other Italian club in the future.

• Matthäus will take revenge on Maradona at his third World Championship. In the Apennines. He led his partners and shone effectively in almost all games: he scored a double in the match with the Yugoslavs; sent balls into the net in battles with the teams of the UAE and Czechoslovakia; took the post-match penalty kick in the fight with the English in the semi-finals. In the final, Diego Armando will not be able to seal Bodo Illgner's goal, and Andreas Brehme will score the only goal from the spot. It is noteworthy that the “standard” was initially supposed to be performed by Matthäus (as a regular penalty taker and captain), but during the break he changed his boots and, out of superstition, decided not to tempt fate... On July 8, 1990, Lothar will raise the “Golden Goddess” over his head, and Pele will say: “To my regret, the Brazilians do not have Matthäus.”

• On Christmas Day, the lucky winner will naturally be awarded the Golden Ball. He will score 137 points in the voting (second place Italian Salvatore Schillaci will have 84 points). And in 1991, Lothar would become the first winner of the FIFA Player of the Year award. By the way, this award will be abolished in 2009. And Matthäus will remain the only German football player to receive this prize.

• The dispatcher will miss the 1992 Continental Forum due to a torn cruciate ligament. And without him, Germany will lose to the Danes in the final.

• At the 1994 World Cup in the USA, Matthäus would open the scoring in the quarterfinal meeting with the Bulgarians, but towards the end the star squad would relax, concede two goals and end their performance ingloriously.

• But at the glorious Euro 1996 for Germany, Lothar will not be there. Berti Vogts did not take him to the national team. And he didn’t take it because the midfielder published his... diary in the Bild newspaper, in which he cast the coach and individual Bundesteam partners in a bad (and this is, to put it mildly) light, which completely ruined relations with the entire team.

* However, two years later, before the planetary tournament in France, Vogts will turn to Matthäus for help. And at his fifth World Cup, the brawler brought the number of matches he played in the final stages to 25. This record would only be broken by Lionel Messi a quarter of a century later.

• At Euro 2000, the veteran will play his anniversary, 150th match for the national team. And this achievement can only be covered in the foreseeable future by Joshua Kimmich, who has 106 fights for the Eagles.

• The last club of 39-year-old Matthäus was the New York Metrostars. But Lothar did not open America: 21 matches and 0 effective actions. And I really regretted leaving Bayern, which actually won the Champions League in 2001...

* 67 - this is how many penalty kicks Lothar Matthäus scored during his career.

• The troublemaker did not win any laurels in the coaching field. He was kicked out of Rapid Vienna, which took 8th place under his leadership, for harsh statements. From 2004 to 2011, he worked in clubs in Austria, Brazil, Hungary and Israel. But I couldn’t give the desired result anywhere. Things didn’t work out for him with the Bulgarian national team either. And only with Partizan Belgrade he managed to win the national championship.

• But the talkative and provoking comrade found himself as an expert and commentator on television. In 2017, he even won a sports journalism award as the most quoted football analyst.

• On the personal front, Matthäus also behaved dangerously and impudently. He met his first wife Sylvia in the fourth grade. They signed while still 19 years old. After the birth of the child, he gave his wife a yacht and named it “Sylvia”. When the betrayal was revealed, and after the divorce this yacht remained with him, he renamed it “Lolita”. In honor of his mistress. In total, he was married five times. He has two daughters and two sons. Moreover, Milan, which was given to him by the Russian model Anastasia Klimko, was born when Matthäus was already 53 years old. It is curious that his fourth wife was the daughter of Soviet hockey player Sergei Chudinov, Kristina. And now Lothar Herbert is dating Teresa Sommer, who is almost 40 years younger than him.