50 years ago, viewers of the ARD Sportschau primetime sports magazine voted for a "Goal of the Year" for the first time. Overhead kicks, scissor kicks, volleys, shots from the corner flag or the halfway line and many other goalscoring works of art have been recognised since then, with Bayern picking up the most awards (seven). Members' magazine "51" reminisces with our previous winners - in the hope that the award will finally come back to a Munich player after 22 long years... Part 4 with Klaus Augenthaler.
“Coach Jupp Heynckes had mentioned before this DFB Cup match at Eintracht Frankfurt that Uli Stein liked to stand very far off his line, like a kind of libero. I then noticed during the game that he was constantly outside his penalty area when Frankfurt were in possession, so I just tried it – and the ball landed perfectly. It flew 49.5 metres, right under the crossbar. Uli Stein accepted it shaking his head. I was good friends with him. He just said: ‘Only crazy people go for goal from that distance.’”
Practised in training
“At Bayern at that time, we often shot at goal from the halfway line at the end of training. If you scored, you were allowed to go into the dressing room. I often tried it in matches, including once in an international against Colombia, where ‘El Loco’ René Higuita was in goal. But he didn’t fall for it.
“People still remember the goal at Frankfurt today. I regularly get sent the video and I enjoy watching it. Whenever I see it, I think to myself: Man, why does no one challenge you there? Only one of them tried but fairly half-heartedly. That the strike was later also voted ‘Goal of the Decade’ is obviously great, but it didn’t interest me for long. After all, we were knocked out in the next round of the cup.”
In the third part of the series, Lothar Matthäus reflected on his ‘Goal of the Year’ from 1992:
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