Lothar Matthaus on Jogi Löw
Banished by Berti Vogts before Euro 96, Lothar knows what it’s like to be dropped by Germany – but, he says, that wasn’t handled as badly as last month’s axing of Jerome Boateng, Mats Hummels and Thomas Muller
There is a right time to tell a player that their international career is over, and there is a wrong time to do it. With Thomas Muller, Jerome Boateng and Mats Hummels, Jogi Löw definitely got it wrong.
I represented Germany 150 times during my career, and it was always an honour. I was proud of my first game, proud of my 75th game and proud of my last game. I was proud whenever the coach of the national team believed that I could help my country. When my international career came to an end, nobody had to tell me. We’d had some bad results at Euro 2000, and I was 39. Nobody spoke with me. I knew it myself – I’d seen how the team had performed, going out early, and how I’d performed.
The best time for a coach to make changes is after a tournament like that, when the team don’t perform well. Jogi Löw should have done the same after the World Cup. Everyone was surprised that the only two players to leave were Mesut Ozil, who retired for other reasons, and Sami Khedira.
Jogi wasn’t strong enough to tell the players who had lifted the World Cup in 2014. But after the worst World Cup in Germany’s history, everyone would have understood. If he’d said, “I want to play younger players now”, nobody would have been angry or said, “Why now?” He had another chance after Germany were relegated in their Nations League group. He could have made changes in the winter break, but again he didn’t. Maybe he was skiing and didn’t have time.
Instead, he waited and waited until the last second before he picked the squad for Germany’s most recent matches. He waited maybe 100 days, then flew to Munich and told Muller, Boateng and Hummels, “Hey guys, it’s over for you.”
The players didn’t even know he was arriving. Nobody knew. These guys had played in 70, 80 or 100 Germany matches. That is not a gentleman’s way to do it, and the timing was bad – a few days before Bayern Munich played Liverpool.
Even worse, the media already knew. The newspapers had all the details, but there was an agreement with the federation not to publish before 2pm, when the players
were told. They were informed, then two minutes later saw the federation’s statement on social media. All three of them were very upset about how it was handled. Jogi Löw has a lot of experience, so I was really surprised he did it like that.
When I was dropped for Euro 96, nobody said anything – Berti Vogts just didn’t pick me. Now we’re good friends, but back then our relationship wasn’t easy. He had arrived after the 1990 World Cup and everyone knew that Franz Beckenbauer and myself weren’t just manager and player; we were friends. The players were close to Beckenbauer, and when there was more distance with Vogts, it didn’t create the best atmosphere.
I had two operations on my Achilles in 1995 and Berti said, “Lothar, we have a friendly and I already know how you play, so I’ll give a chance to younger players.” But as it got closer to Euro 96, there was less contact. He never said, “Lothar, I don’t need you any more.” No explanation, nothing. But I didn’t need an explanation. What could I say? I could only be upset. We don’t have to sit down for dinner; after one minute I’ll hear his decision and then there’ll be a bad atmosphere for the whole meal. I won’t enjoy even the best wine! People said that my relationship with Jurgen Klinsmann was a factor, and maybe it was. Klinsmann was closer to Vogts than I was, and maybe Klinsmann was saying things. The coach has to decide, not the player, but maybe they decided together.
When you see the result of Euro 96, Berti Vogts got it right. He won the tournament. It wasn’t the best situation for me, but I wasn’t crying about it.
At the end of my Germany career, I got a farewell match and that was really nice. Lukas Podolski got one recently too, but I don’t know if Muller, Boateng and Hummels will be offered a match. I don’t know how they would react – maybe they wouldn’t accept it. The way that things finished for them was different to the way that things finished for me or for Podolski.
After the way things came to an end, they are still really upset.
“JOGI LÖW SHOULD HAVE TOLD THEM In THE WINTER BREAK THAT THEY WOULDN’T BE PICKED AGAIN, BUT HE DIDN’T. MAYBE HE WAS SKIING AND DIDN’T HAVE TIME”