50 years ago, viewers of the ARD Sportschau prime time sports programme 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 6 with Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
Goal of the Year 1980: Karl-Heinz Rummenigge vs. Bochum
"I can clearly remember both of my 'Goals of the Year': The opener against VfL Bochum in 1980 was the only goal of the game after three minutes – and to be honest it was born out of necessity. I had my back to the goal, surrounded by Bochum players, the only one of us anywhere near the goal. So I had to juggle the ball three times until I said to myself: now you have to have a shot. It looped over the keeper and was a technically demanding strike – but not as planned. I had to do something special to be able to get a shot off.
1981 Goal of the Year in a Germany shirt
Almost exactly 12 months later, I scored three goals in the 7-1 win against Finland with Germany and the one for 2-1 was voted 'Goal of the Year'. The most spectacular part of that goal was actually the assist when Paul Breitner headed the ball onto me; it was his most unusual assist as heading wasn't one of his strengths. 1980, 1981 was the heyday of the 'Breitnigge' duo and that fits in with this goal. We had the best World Cup qualifiers in the history of German football: 16 points, 33 goals for and three against.
My grandson Dante likes to look at the medals for the Goals of the Year or Month from time to time. Then we get them out and look at the films of those times on YouTube. He's really interested in football and it's great to be able to bring those old memories back to life in that way."
In the fifth part of the series, Jürgen Wegmann reflected on his ‘Goal of the Year’ from 1988:
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