BACK in 1991 it wasn’t a bad time to be a German. The Berlin Wall was down, Maradona and the Argentineans had been seen off in the World Cup final the previous year and today in ‘91 the captain of that side, Lothar Matthaus was picking up the first ever FIFA World Player of the Year award.

The point of the award isn’t too clear, as the Ballon d’or was, and still is, considered the most prestigious gong for a player to pick up, but we’ll hazard a guess that the suits at FIFA fancied an excuse for another annual piss-up. For the last sixteen years Sepp Blatter and his cronies have put their glad rags on and had a quasi-Christmas party every December when a panel of national team coaches and captains vote for their favourite player.



You’d think that this global celebration of football would see players from all over the globe nominated, but the reality is if you don’t play your club football in Europe, you’re not going to win. Juan Roman Riquelme was in the running for this year’s prize following his loan spell at Boca Juniors, but that’s as close as anyone’s got. For the record, this year’s list was a bit of a farce, with the list of 50 nominees not including the likes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Villa, Cesc Fabregas and Europe’s Golden Boot winner Francesco Totti.

Back in 1991 though, the German skipper was a worthy winner, with the award being just the latest stop in a career that saw him pick up more silverware than you can shake a stick at, winning domestic titles in Germany and Italy and getting his mitts on the World Cup with the national side.

See Lothar in his pomp below and come back tomorrow to see find out which set of stripped fans are celebrating their birthday.

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