Matthaus on Trump and Putin

In his final column for Fourfourtwo, the German legend explains how a budding interior designer ended up playing in front of 170,000 in South America, before meeting the two most powerful people on the planet

Over the past two years, I’ve written this column from many different places: Mexico, Abu Dhabi, and the World Cup in Russia. This time, I’m writing from Los Angeles. When I started my career, I never knew that football would allow me to travel the world and meet so many people.

Before I became a professional footballer, I was actually training to be an interior designer. I’d done a diploma, and that was my plan if things didn’t work out. But football changed my life.

As maybe one of the best players in the world for a period, I had the luck to travel a lot with my club teams, and with Germany. I played in stadiums all around the world, from South America to Asia, northern Europe to South Africa.

The most amazing stadium I ever played in was the Maracana, in front of 170,000 against Brazil in a friendly in 1982. I enjoyed playing at the Azteca Stadium in Mexico, and I also played at the old Wembley in 1982 - and won! The San Siro still feels like my second home, my living room, because that’s where I had so many great results with Inter, and with Germany during the 1990 World Cup.

Later, I coached teams in Austria, Serbia, Hungary, Bulgaria, Israel and Brazil. Today, I still travel around the world a lot as a commentator or television expert, and also as an ambassador – for the Bundesliga, the German Football Federation and Bayern Munich.

This month, I’ve been travelling as an ambassador for Bayern in the run-up to the International Champions Cup. I was in Beijing for a couple of days, then I came to LA.

Sometimes I wake up and I forget which hotel I’m in, which city, which country! Is it morning or evening? Travelling can be tiring, but I do it because I enjoy it. It was the same when I was a player – I think I slept more in hotels with my team-mates than with my family and my wife at home!

I’ve met a lot of important people in my life, not only in sport. Nearly 20 years ago, when I played in New York for the Metrostars, I met Donald Trump in a restaurant. He was sitting there with his girlfriend, and we said hello and had small talk.

Last year, I met Vladimir Putin two or three times at the World Cup in Russia. We talked about German football and the German results at the World Cup, which wasn’t too nice for me! I also talked about judo with him - we have a mutual friend who’s the president of the World Judo Federation.

I never spoke about politics with him, though. That’s not my business – my business is sport. The World Cup was in Russia, so a handshake between the president of the country and some of FIFA’S ambassadors, from the history of football, is automatic. There was criticism about me meeting him, but people make too many stories about nothing. I’m not a political guy. When people talk to me, I talk with respect.

I’ve met superstars in other sports, too - Michael Jordan, and also Usain Bolt. I like Usain - he’s a funny guy! I had dinner with the Klitschkos, and I’ve spent many evenings talking with Boris Becker. He’s a Bayern Munich fan and sometimes sits in the studio with me when I’m working for Sky Germany. There’s a lot of respect between us.

In football, I’ve spoken to Pele many times and I have so much respect for him. Pele, Diego Maradona and myself all have something in common – we were all sponsored by Puma and wore their boots. Puma helped to make all three of us famous!

Pele is a good friend of Franz Beckenbauer because they played together at New York Cosmos, and he knows that I’m very close with Franz. Whenever I’m with him, we talk about Pele. Whenever Beckenbauer is with Pele, maybe they talk about me!

Since the end of my career, I’ve watched many matches. The best was Germany’s 7-1 win against Brazil at the 2014 World Cup. I enjoyed it so much, especially because I was there! I didn’t believe what was happening. I thought I was in a movie. It was a perfect game for the German national team, maybe their most perfect game ever.

I’ve been very happy to write this column every month for the past two years. I’ve written about my life and my thoughts on football, and I hope people have found it interesting. To Fourfourtwo’s readers, I wish you all the very best.

“I MET DONALD TRUMP In A RESTAURANT, AND ALSO SPOKE TO VLADIMIR PUTIN In RUSSIA. WE ONLY TALKED FOOTBALL AND JUDO – POLITICS ISN’T MY BUSINESS”