Between “Grande Lothar” and “Loddar”: Matthäus turns 60

Lothar Matthäus actually just wants to enjoy his life. Even Corona doesn't stop him from going jogging almost every day. “I was eleven kilometers again yesterday,” he says on the phone. This is a “gift from God” after such an intensive career as a professional athlete. When Matthäus is not running, he often plays football with his youngest son Milan or talks about football in the TV studio as a Sky expert. “I do believe that I can be completely happy,” he says. A few days before his 60th birthday on Sunday, things could hardly be going better for him. If it weren't for the matter of the national coaching job.

Viewed from the outside, one could ask the question: What else does Matthew actually want? Nothing at all, as he says himself. There are only a few titles in football that the record national player has not won. He played a number of games for his former heart club Borussia Mönchengladbach, for the big FC Bayern Munich and the then somewhat larger Inter. In Italy, the caretaker's son from Herzogenaurach, Franconia, crowned his extraordinary career with the 1990 World Cup title. This is also why Matthew no longer has to. “I am someone who likes to help” But Joachim Löw's approaching withdrawal suddenly brought him back into the game. Since it became clear that Löw would quit as national coach after the European Championships in the summer, Matthäus has repeatedly signaled his willingness to talk. Although he doesn't really want anything more, he would of course support German football at any time. “I am someone who likes to help. If I had the feeling that those responsible were united behind it, then I would think about it,” he recently said on Sky. Whether that happens remains to be seen. In any case, Matthäus' favorite to succeed Löw is Bayern coach Hansi Flick.

At Inter, Matthäus became a legend.

It has been almost ten years since Matthäus last worked as a trainer. Compared to his playing career, his coaching positions read like a sporting relegation: Partizan Belgrade, Athletico Paranaense, Maccabi Netanja and the Bulgarian national team are there. As a player, Matthäus was a world footballer, and as a coach he won the Serbian championship. It is also these differences that distorted the public image of the former exceptional talent, at least in Germany. While people in Italy still revere him as “Grande Lothar” today, the trained interior decorator is often called “Loddar” in Germany.

People in this country still smile about Matthäus, about his Franconian accent, for example, which makes the Tiki-Taka playing style coined by Pep Guardiola sound like “Diggi-Dagga” or an English club like Tottenham Hotspur sounds like “Doddenhäm”. Some people also remember his awkward English or unintentionally flippant sayings. When Christoph Daum, who was almost national coach, stumbled upon the cocaine affair many years ago, Matthäus said afterwards: “It is important that he now brings a clear line into his life.” He said this shortly after his playing career, and the image of the ex-footballer Matthäus took on unwanted contours. Criticism of German society He knows about all these things and how they deal with them in Germany. “Boris Becker, Franz Beckenbauer. We all make mistakes, but we Germans are happy when a celebrity gets caught. “I don’t like this envious society,” he said in the “Kicker” interview. Some are already smiling again at the rumors about Matthäus as national coach, when he hasn't even coached a Bundesliga team yet. In the past few days he has only answered questions that were repeatedly asked of him. “Why not Lothar?” said Franz Beckenbauer in “Bild”. Matthew probably won't be too bothered by it.

Since 2014 he has been married to Anastasia Klimko, who is 27 years his junior. It is already his fifth marriage.

He is at peace with himself and his life. “You can never achieve everything. Should I therefore say that I would have preferred to become world champion twice? No, I’m healthy, that’s the most important thing,” he says. “I have chosen the right paths.” He doesn’t know where these paths will lead him. He doesn't want to because he's happy. He approaches the fact that he is now approaching 60 “quite calmly and with a smile.” “It's nothing special for me.” He actually would have been in Dubai on Sunday, but that didn't work because of the corona pandemic.

Maybe he will then spend his 61st birthday as national coach. “He has something big on him,” Hertha coach Pal Dardai recently assured. The 44-year-old ex-professional should know because he experienced Matthäus as Hungary's national coach for almost two years. “He has the potential to be a winner.”

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Between “Grande Lothar” and “Loddar”: Matthäus turns 60

One of the best German footballers of all time turns 60 on Sunday: Lothar Matthäus. On the pitch he was a gifted midfield director, off the field he was a womanizer and he was always up for a casual joke.

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