Lothar Matthäus

Lothar Matthäus, born in Erlangen in 1961, became an Ehrenpreisträger (Honorary Award Recipient) of the DFL in 2019. He played at five World Cups for the German national team between 1982 and 1998, captaining the side to the trophy in 1990 in Italy with a 1:0 win over Argentina in the final. At the start of his glittering international career, in which he set the German appearance record with 150 caps (scoring 23 goals) before being made honorary captain of the German national team, Lothar Matthäus won the European Championship in 1980 – also in Italy.

At FC Bayern München (1984–1988, 1992–2000), he won the Bundesliga title seven times and the DFB-Pokal twice. He was spotted at his home-town club, 1. FC Herzogenaurach, by Jupp Heynckes, who guided him to Borussia Mönchengladbach (1979–1984). Lothar Matthäus played 464 matches in the Bundesliga (scoring 121 goals). Another of his clubs was Inter Milan (1988–1992), where he won the Italian championship in 1989 as well as the UEFA Cup (1991), which he lifted again in 1996 with FC Bayern. At the end of his career, he played for New York/New Jersey MetroStars. The dynamic midfield maestro was crowned European Footballer of the Year in 1990, World Footballer of the Year in 1991, and German Footballer of the Year in 1990 and 1999.

Lothar Matthäus coached FK Partizan Belgrade to the Serbian title in 2003 and won the Austrian league with FC Red Bull Salzburg as assistant coach in 2007. He also managed the Hungarian and Bulgarian national teams. For many years, he has been an analyst for the DFL’s media partner Sky in addition to part of the Bundesliga Legends Network for the DFL all over the world.

_{Photo: Valeria Witters}