The spectators at the venerable Bökelbergstadion in Mönchengladbach were puzzled on matchday 34. In the newly crowned German champions FC Bayern's 2-2 draw in Gladbach, Jürgen Klinsmann smashed the ball into the net in the 90th minute with such ferocity that it seemed as if he wanted to rip the net apart before the title celebrations began.
What the fans in the stands and many others across football-mad Germany did not know: it was the goal with which Klinsmann, in the very last minute of the season, ensured that Matthäus lost his bet with Hoeneß. A little later, everyone found out. Lothar Matthäus published his war with Klinsmann and other juicy titbits under the title Mein Tagebuch (My Diary) and won new friends daily. "I note this with incomprehension; slowly, all I can do is laugh about it," said national goalkeeper Andreas Köpke, while Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn could no longer bear to hear the name "Matthäus": "We are German champions, nothing else matters.
I don't operate at that level. I know what went on. I don't need to read the diary — I was there." To the accusation from the Klinsmann camp that the high sum wagered could have brought joy to many children in Africa, Matthäus delivered a final counter: "If you add the two million marks that Jürgen had struck out of his contract last year as a release clause, we're already at two million and ten thousand marks.
You could indeed have done an awful lot with that." At the end of the 1996/97 season, Klinsmann had had enough of the limbo of standards and moved to Sampdoria Genoa. Not without landing one last blow on his adversary, with whom he would reconcile only years later: "I feel sorry for the Bayern players, because they'll have the problems with Lothar in the future. I no longer have them — I'm gone. Thank God."