FRANCE 98 – General Media News Template
Lothar Matthaus will complete one of football’s most unlikely comebacks on Wednesday night when he plays for World Cup finalists Germany for the first time in well over three years. Matthaus will face Finland in a World Cup warm-up match in Helsinki-his 123rd international appearance.
The former German captain has slipped back into the national squad like a hand in a well worn glove and is looking forward to his return to the field.
“I am back in a new-old world,” the 37-year-old defender said. The last time he played for his country was against Albania in December 1994 in Kaiserslautern.
Since then he has endured injury and the knowledge he was booted out of the national side, unwillingly, before his time. His conflict with coach Berti Vogts and captain Jurgen Klinsmann is now over and the trio aim to lift the German side to a fourth world title in France.
Matthaus, who captained Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning side, has suddenly become the unexpected focal point of this campaign and is handling the burden with the ease of a man who has lived most of his distinguished footballing career in the media spotlight. “I thought my time with the national team had ended,” Matthaus said Tuesday.
“That’s why I’ll be doing everything I can to keep the coach happy. The national team was always a large part of my life, I missed it.” As expected, the Bayern Munich star will get a place in the starting line-up against Finland, replacing Olaf Thon, who is recovering from ankle ligament damage.
Klinsmann, meanwhile, is likely to partner Oliver Bierhoff in attack, leaving the Bundesliga’s top two strikers-Olaf Marschall and Ulf Kirsten-on the bench.
Matthaus will be called on to play as an attack-oriented libero, similar to the role filled by the absent Mathias Sammer. Coach Berti Vogts, meanwhile, is sticking by his credo that the team is the star and not any one individual.
“Lothar is one of 11 players. It is not a Lothar Matthaus game, Germany are playing Finland,” Vogts reminded reporters. Absent from the line-up will be Bayern’s Thomas Helmer, who has muscle cramps and is struggling to find his fitness after a knee injury which hampered the end of his Bundesliga season. He to play on Saturday, however, when Germany contest another friendly against Colombia.