Top 100 Quotes & Sayings by Lothar Matthaus

Explore popular quotes and sayings by a German athlete Lothar Matthaus.
Last updated on December 3, 2024.
Lothar Matthaus

Lothar Herbert Matthäus is a German football pundit and former player and manager. After captaining West Germany to victory in the 1990 FIFA World Cup where he lifted the World Cup trophy, he was awarded the Ballon d'Or. In 1991, he was named the first FIFA World Player of the Year, and remains the only German to have received the award. He was also included in the Ballon d'Or Dream Team in 2020.

Striker Sandro Wagner is very strong, a true No. 9, who really made his mark playing with Germany in the Confederations Cup.
Football is not only sunshine.
I think my breakthrough was at the World Cup 1986. — © Lothar Matthaus
I think my breakthrough was at the World Cup 1986.
I had very good players around me in the team, like in the German national team. Andreas Brehme was one of my best partners in the team because he had good eyes; he could always hit the best ball.
Sancho is a player who has everything. He has fantastic speed, great technique, a good eye for his colleagues, and that key pass. Everything he does, he pulls off at high speed at the right moment. For me, he is a perfect player. The ability he has is instinctive, natural. You cannot teach that brilliance.
Diego Simeone, the coach from Atletico Madrid, was a very strong player as a midfielder.
When I'm with friends, when I have time, I like to play soccer, and I think it's still my passion, still my love. I'm not crazy to do it every day, but sometimes when I see the ball, I like to kick the ball.
I like to travel, and I'm always ready for a new experience.
In Germany, we laugh at it. Mourinho just selects a topic to moan about - transfers, team preparation, a rival coach. But Pep Guardiola wants it all to be about the performance of his team. He's obsessed by possession, like at Bayern Munich, and will not compromise on that at Manchester City.
Muller is part No. 7 and part No. 9, a second striker. But in Ancelotti's system, there is no room for that type of player.
The typical German coach wants things done one way - his way.
I think football is football, politics is politics.
When Messi gets the chance to go one against one, he is very difficult to stop on his own. — © Lothar Matthaus
When Messi gets the chance to go one against one, he is very difficult to stop on his own.
Andres Iniesta is the magic man, not just for Barcelona but also for Spain.
Both Luka Modric and Ivan Rakitic are classy players, top midfielders. They play for Real Madrid and Barcelona. That tells you everything.
Muller isn't a number seven, a number nine, nor a number 10. He is everything and in between.
When Messi has the ball centrally, with time, he has so many options to hurt you.
Iceland won't change. No matter who they play, they're 4-4-2.
Competition is good for any player as long as they react the right way and use it as motivation.
You cannot always blame others if things go wrong.
Bayern is always a team that can win the Champions League title in Europe.
When a game runs out of your hands is when you look for someone like Pogba to hold the team together and give them rhythm, but I feel he only plays for himself.
All my family worked for Puma. My mother worked there, and my father was the guy that opened and closed up in the evening. We lived in the neighbouring building - just a couple of steps, and I would be in the Puma factory. All 300 people that worked there knew me; it was my adventure playground. I knew everything, even how to make a shoe sole.
For Guardiola, the system and tactics can change but not the approach, attitude, or philosophy.
Neymar doesn't need to act - he's an excellent player, and he has everything a high-level player needs. He's one of the top five players in the world; why does he need to act? It doesn't bring him sympathy, and it's not good for him.
People talk about Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo, but you need an Iniesta to win the big titles.
If someone plays six World Cups, they deserve to be congratulated.
Niko Kovac had to understand the system inside Bayern, to realise that this is a very different club to Eintracht Frankfurt, where he was before.
I often have the feeling that Ozil does not feel comfortable in the Germany jersey, that he is not free, almost as if he does not want to play at all. There is no heart, no joy, no passion.
Nobody needs to talk about the history of Manchester United because everybody knows it.
I hold Jonas Hector in high esteem, and he is a good player.
My wife is from Russia. I like the country, the mentality of the people.
Normally, the coach does not like to make changes that are not necessary - because a team has to find itself.
Important in a big tournament is how you start. With a great match at the start, you can distance yourself from the unrest from outside. And it increases the respect among opponents.
Mexico and Italy are countries where you can almost taste the atmosphere from the teeming stands when you're on the field, and that's a real motivation for a player.
No single player can stop Antoine Griezmann on his own.
When I was a player, and since then, we have never been so snobbish as to go into a tournament saying, 'We will win this World Cup.' We aren't like that.
If Messi is on top form, then his team can win everything. — © Lothar Matthaus
If Messi is on top form, then his team can win everything.
Robert Lewandowski has had some criticism, but he knows how to find the net.
It is possible to stop Messi. Teams do it when he plays for Argentina. But the Barcelona Messi is different.
As a player, you'd rather be up against Barcelona, Real Madrid, or Bayern. Big clubs. Great atmosphere. Real excitement.
I'm not a fan of Paul Pogba. Maybe he is a talent, but I don't see him as any more than that.
Klopp knows how to motivate players. He speaks to them individually, gets their confidence up, makes them believe and grow in quality. He makes his players feel happy. And they then take that happiness onto the field. He builds that into them.
I was certainly no Maradona. I was a very fast player. When I saw a space, I used it. When I went past somebody, he didn't catch up with me again. I was a player who came with a run-up. What Maradona could see in a small space, I saw over long distances.
Soccer is the main sport in Mexico; it's very important for the Mexican people. It's their passion - it's their religion - and Mexican football was always one of the best in the world.
I live in Budapest and saw how the football helped the Hungarian people to be happy.
I like football. It's fun winning the ball from someone. It's fun shooting at goal. It's fun hitting a ball over 60 metres that arrives. It's like in golf: if you hit a ball, and it flies and flies and flies, you enjoy it.
At Wembley, everything is bigger, wider; the atmosphere is different. — © Lothar Matthaus
At Wembley, everything is bigger, wider; the atmosphere is different.
I am happy when Bayern win.
Toni Kroos leaving the German national team would hurt me very much.
When teams train now, it is about what they do with the ball and, if they lose it, how quickly they press to win it back.
He just has the knack, the ability, to do something special and crucial. This is Messi.
One day I'd like to show what I can do as a coach in Germany. But I won't bend over backwards for a job in the Bundesliga and lock myself in my house for 24 hours just to win other people's approval.
Winning the World Cup was just the most emotional experience.
Muller is a winner for Germany and expects to score big goals in big games, especially with his late runs from behind the striker.
I'm actually a very simple person. A very normal man.
Age is just a number when you possess real quality and a game plan.
Nolito is not a left winger - he is a central player.
Every good German team has strong leadership in the side.
Raheem Sterling is a danger to every defence because of his pace and technique. If you let him go one against one, you are in trouble. He has that speed with the ball at his feet to make a difference.
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