I would like to see more on Sammer's role - Brwned said I underrated him, so would be good to hear some more about him here.
Sammer's peak is often underrated, which is easily explained. It was brutally cut short by an infection after a knee injury, that forced him to retire so early. I think he played his last league game with 29, which is probably the age when players like him usually start to peak, because experience is so important. A lot is already said about his style on the pitch and you probably saw at least a few of his games, so I try to go a bit further to explain his influence on the pitch, because that's a key part of why he stood out. You mentioned in the draft thread, that the Ballon d'Or win doesn't mean a lot, because Cannavaro won it as well. The difference between Cannavaro and the other 2 defenders, who won it, is, that they were much more than defenders. They were the brains behind the team, the leaders who pushed the team forward, the ones who took over when games were on the line, putting fires out in defense, but also contributing in attack. No one really questioned Sammer winning it back then the way Cannavaro was questioned, because he was clearly the most influential player for a brilliant club side and a Euro winning nationalteam and not only one who showed heroics for a few games. He easily outperformed Matthäus in that libero role. Post injury libero Matthäus was of course not as great as pre injury box to box Matthäus, but he was still quality, good enough to have the best Bayern side since the 70's built around him at that time.
His career after the retirement probably shows how brilliant his understanding of the game was, and why he excelled so early in that libero role. Only 2 years after his retirement, Dortmund completely fell apart. They were fighting against relegation in 1999/00. Udo Lattek came back to save the club with Sammer as assistent manager, they finished 11th in the league. The next season, Sammer became the manager, only 33 years old. The club finished 3rd and one year later he became the youngest manager to win the Bundesliga title. The club also made it to the UEFA cup final, beating Milan 4:0 at home in the semifinals. They were unlucky to loose the final, Jürgen Kohler was sent off after 30 minutes in his last ever game, Dortmund conceded twice shortly after the red card, but almost turned the game around with 10 men, loosing 2-3 in the end. He then went on to become an important figure in the rebuilding of the youth academies in Germany when he worked as director of football for the German FA and is now an important piece at Bayern, part of the managing board and director of football. He took over after the team won the 2nd place treble and his mentality was important in turning that horrible season into the ultimate success only one year later.
All that tells a story about him, imo, a story about what could have been. There's no doubt in my mind, that he would have been an alltime great defender, easily the best German defender since Beckenbauer, if he had the chance to finish his career. He had the right mentality to push on, the ultimate football intelligence, tactical understanding, awareness of what's happening around him. He used all that to achieve brilliant things as a manager/director of football for Dortmund, Germany and Bayern. It doesn't make up for what we missed out on his playing career though. His peak years between 93 and 97 were already outstanding, but they should have been only the beginning.
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Edgar Allan Pillow Sorry, that I didn't find the time to write that love letter earlier, maybe it would have helped you to win the game
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Ouch mate, that hurts! Though I harbour hopes of CL '99 esque comeback, it was anyway a good game. Cheers!