"There's no doubt about it, I always like to play against Holland . . . Indeed, I'd be delighted to play the last international game of my career against them, but not in this week's friendly. No, I'm thinking of the Euro 2000 final in Rotterdam on July 2nd."
At the ripe old age of 38 (he will be 39 next month), German standard bearer Lothar Matthaeus is still trucking. If all goes well, he will tomorrow become the most capped footballer in the international game when he picks up his 144th cap in lining out against Holland in Amsterdam.
Critics expect Matthaeus to wrap up his 20-year international innings tomorrow. Next month, he is scheduled to move to New York where he is due to finish his remarkable career with the New York Metro-Stars. As things stand, now, he will play line out a last time for his current club, Bayern Munich, in a March 8th Champions League game against Real Madrid at the Olympic Stadium in Munich. The following day, he departs for America and, presumably, out of all consideration for Euro'2000.
Do not, however, completely write off the possibility that German coach Erich Ribbeck might, at the last moment, decide that his side (far from impressive in qualifying) could benefit from the Matthaeus combination of experience and killer-instinct, if only in an off-the-field capacity. Stranger things have already happened in the Matthaeus career.
When he badly damaged cruciate ligaments in his right knee, playing for Inter Milan in April 1992, many suspected that the then 31-year-old German had come to the end of the road. Two years previously, he had led Germany to World Cup success in Rome. The year before that, he had won an Italian title with Inter. What more could he want out of the game?
When a not very impressive Germany limped out of the USA'94 World Cup, beaten 2-1 by Bulgaria in a quarter-final tie, we all presumed that this time at least we had seen the last of then 33-year-old Matthaeus. There followed a series of injuries, including two Achilles tendon ruptures, between 1995 and 1997.
Remarkably, on the very eve of the France'98 finals, German coach Berti Vogts was forced (much against his will) to recall him into the squad. After Germany's humiliating 3-0 exit to Croatia, surely it was definitively "all over" for Matthaeus - with a record five World Cups behind him.
If the Matthaeus international career does end tomorrow, it will do so where it began, for he won his first international cap as a 19-year-old against Holland during the 1980 European Championships in Italy. Those were the days when men like Paul Breitner, Bernd Schuster, Uli Stielike, Hansi Mueller and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge were automatic first-choice selections for then "West" Germany.
The very mention of those names testifies to the longevity of Matthaeus. Often single-minded to the point of pigheadedness, he rarely passed unnoticed. As he bows out tomorrow night, though, a nagging thought will be at the back of many minds. Have we really seen the last of him?
