'SA has been doing something wrong': German legend Lothar Matthäus on SA football

05 March 2020 - 09:24 By Marc Strydom
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Sky Experte Lothar Matthaeus during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 8, 2020 in Leverkusen, Germany.
Sky Experte Lothar Matthaeus during the Bundesliga match between Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Borussia Dortmund at BayArena on February 8, 2020 in Leverkusen, Germany.
Image: TF-Images/Getty Images

German football legend Lothar Matthäus says South African football has been “doing something wrong” to not have grown in strength from hosting the 2010 Fifa World Cup.

June 11 this year marks 10 years since Bafana Bafana kicked off the World Cup in front of 94‚000 supporters at FNB Stadium (then Soccer City) with a 1-1 draw against Mexico‚ as South Africa became the first African country to host a World Cup.

Germany’s 1990 World Cup-winning captain Matthäus‚ visiting SA for some Bundesliga promotional events‚ said on he had enjoyed travelling around South Africa in 2010‚ driving between cities like Johannesburg‚ Durban and Cape Town for matches‚ and speaking to South Africans.

Matthäus said he has been surprised since 2010 not to see Bafana make progress on the international stage‚ as they and the SA Football Association (Safa) should have reaped the benefits of being World Cup hosts.

“I was here the last time 10 years ago during the World Cup.

"And maybe it was a special time for SA too – a World Cup‚ and the first African country to host it‚” former Bayern Munich and Inter Milan star Matthäus said.

“I liked being here. I had five weeks. I spent a lot of time with the people who are living here.

“South African people – I was talking to them about football. They are very interested in football.

“And because of this I was missing a bit a result from the South African national team in the last 10 years. Because you don’t see them any more where I was expecting them.

“Because during the World Cup they had a good performance where the fans were coming to the stadium. And this would be normal‚ to have future results.

“And South Africa has been doing something wrong. I don’t know what. But this has to be something wrong when you don’t have any more results.

“And I wish only for South African football to have better results in the future.”

Matthäus captained the German team who included Jürgen Klinsmann‚ Thomas Hassler‚ Andy Brehme and Rudi Völler who beat Diego Maradona’s Argentina 1-0 in the 1990 World Cup final in Rome.

The 1980 European Championship-winner was the 1990 Ballon d’Or world player of the year.

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