Lothar Matthäus turns 60. What kind of party could it have been? The record national player over coffee and cake with his four children, four ex-wives and wife Anastasia. A refined jubilee who can finally enjoy his fame quietly and quietly acknowledges that some media are currently even acting as a possible successor to Joachim Löw. In the last few years, Matthäus has achieved an astonishing change in image. For much of his adult life he was notorious as Laber-Loddar. As a man who babbled faster than the blood rushed through the coils of his brain. Even before he played his first international match at 19, he was already annoying national coach Jupp Derwall and his assistant Erich Ribbeck with his Gosch’n to such an extent that the assistant coach confessed: „Even when we discuss the menu, Lothar chatters in between. ”
He never avoided a faux pas. He bluntly raved about the sexual organ of his teammate Adolfo Valencia to a Berlin basketball player. He stylized himself as a fictional character (“A Lothar Matthäus does not allow himself to be defeated by his body, a Lothar Matthäus decides his own fate”) and, in addition to his professional career, constantly hired himself as a reasonably discreet hobby columnist (among others „Eleven men, eleven quirks ”for the 1988 European Championship, „Milan Notes “1992, „Secret Diary “1997). Somehow he didn’t seem to care either. At the very beginning of his career he said: „We Franks have no jitters. Maybe I talk a little bit – I inherited that from my father. If it’s not stupid, it doesn’t matter … “(sic!)
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He could afford it. After all, he was and is one of the greatest footballers this country has ever produced. Even a coaching prince like Jupp Heynckes once admitted that he found it a grace to have had Matthäus on his team for over five years. Especially since all former companions, buddies and ex-teammates agree at least on the point that Lothar – no matter what external image he conveys – was and is always an upright, reliable and honest contemporary, oh what, a real great guy.
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„A Lothar Matthäus belongs in the sports section and not on the gossip pages “
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Only after various failed coaching engagements abroad did it get through to him that he had ruined his reputation at home with his loose mouth paired with appearances in documentary soaps and VIP programs. The record national player realized that he had made a flawless metamorphosis from world footballer to bang, which apparently disqualified him for a job as a coach in his home country. Even fans of Arminia Bielefeld went to the barricades when his name was traded as the new coach in East Westphalia. And he said: „A Lothar Matthäus belongs in the sports section and not on the gossip pages. I’m working on that. “
As the chief expert at Sky, he has since concentrated on his football expertise – and otherwise largely keeps his mouth shut. He knows his way around there, he does it well, in this area, as in the past, only the best can hold a candle to him. At his sixtieth he could have shed his skin again very subtly and yet in front of the public eye and rose from the eternal zealot to the rank of the sankro-sainted football legend.
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The public knows only too well how he would react
But how does Matthew say: „Would be, would be, bicycle chain ”. His old pals from the Springer press grabbed him again shortly before the vanity. in the „In response to the question about a possible offer from the DFB, he recently got lost in the Bild “podcast, suddenly again very loddarmäddhäääus-like: „If those responsible should come to me at some point, of course I have to worry (…) I don’t know how I would react if I realized that I was needed ”.
The problem: the public knows all too well.
That is why the option of his appointment as national coach has been negotiated like a grotesque everywhere in the last few days. Even Radio Gaga presenters only found the bland gag that the Chancellor would be looking for a job from summer onwards. Only not Lothar’s buddies at Springer. There, however, Matthew took over for two days „Editor-in-chief “of Sportbild and willingly revealed that he almost became national coach as early as 2004 at Beckenbauer’s behest – the call from the emperor at the Robinson Club on Mallorca reached him just a little too late.
It is quite possible that something will come up again with his prospective appointment. As he once said so beautifully: „I wanted to like it, but they weren’t allowed to let me. ”
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In this sense: Congratulations, dear honorary captain!
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