» Serie A » Internazionale » Inter Mailand » Trappatoni » 1989-90 » Lothar Matthaeus » Juventus Turin » Klinsmann » Bergomi » Ferri

An "aging child star" the German news magazine "DER SPIEGEL" had labelled Matthäus a year before the dynamic midfielder was signed by Italian giants Inter Milano - 9 years after his Bundesliga debut and 8 years after he had earned his 1st cap for the West German national team on their successful EURO campaign in Italy in the summer of 1980. Along with other highly gifted players like Bernd Schuster and Pierre Littbarski, young Matthäus looked like the next big thing in German football, but his subsequent Bundesliga career turned out a chequered affair: After 5 years in Moenchengladbach, Bayern Munich signed him off in 1984. In Munich Matthäus soon gained the reputation of a player who tends to fade out of matches right at the moment when his dynamics and his ability as a goal scorer were most needed - one example being Bayern`s 1-2 loss to Porto in the Champions League Final in Vienna. in 1987.

Off he went...one year after his departure, Matthäus had not only won the Scudetto - the Italian football championship - with Inter, but had been voted the best foreign player in a league that was home to the world`s greatest football players. Between the World Cups of 1982 and 1994, Italy`s Serie A was arguably the best and most glamourous football league in the world.