Manchester United 2 Bayern Munich 1 (1998-99) - Where are they 20 years on?
Sunday marks 20 years since Manchester United beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. We looked at where those players are now.
Sunday marks 20 years since Manchester United beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League final. We looked at where those players are now.
Manchester United's finest hour in the modern era saw them come from behind to beat Bayern Munich 2-1 in the 1998-99 Champions League final and Sunday marks the 20th anniversary of that momentous day.
Alex Ferguson's United had an immensely difficult run en route to the final, having faced Bayern and Barcelona in the group stage, before then eliminating Inter and Juventus in the knockout phase.
Bayern – who faced rather more modest opposition in Kaiserslautern and Dynamo Kiev before the final – found themselves ahead after just six minutes, with Mario Basler's free-kick finding the bottom-right corner.
The Germans had the better of things and looked to be heading for the title, but in the first minute of stoppage time Teddy Sheringham turned Ryan Giggs' scuffed shot in from close range.
Two minutes later, United secured their remarkable turnaround – Sheringham nodded on a David Beckham corner and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer prodded home the most famous goal in the club's history.
On the 20th anniversary, we've looked back at the teams on display that day and investigated what they are up to in 2019…
David Beckham
Given his celebrity-like off-field life as a player, it's probably no surprise Beckham never went into management. A philanthropist and investor, the former England star is more businessman than sportsman these days, though he is joint owner of Inter Miami, a club expected to play in MLS from 2020.
Nicky Butt
Having worked as a youth coach after halting his playing days, Butt was hired as the head of United's academy in 2016, overseeing the development of some talented players, such as James Garner, Mason Greenwood, Angel Gomes and Tahith Chong.
Jesper Blomqvist
Another who has done a bit of TV work, but Blomqvist's post-football life is otherwise significantly different to many of his former colleagues – he now runs a pizzeria near Stockholm.
Dwight Yorke
Ambition certainly isn't something Yorke lacks, as he put himself forward for the Aston Villa job last October, though he was unsuccessful, probably because his only coaching experience was a stint as Trinidad and Tobago assistant manager a decade ago.
Andy Cole
Although Cole has trained to become a coach and briefly worked for Milton Keynes Dons, Huddersfield Town and United, that side of his career is yet to take off, partly down to health issues, having had to have a kidney transplant in April 2017.
Substitutes:
Teddy Sheringham
Great players don't always amount to top managers, which is surely relevant for Sheringham. The former striker was praised for his impact on West Ham's forwards during a stint as an attacking coach but lasted less than a year in his first management position at Stevenage. Similarly, he was in charge of Indian side ATK for six months last season before being sacked.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer
Introduced as a substitute who saved the day in 1999, Solskjaer finds himself in a comparable position 20 years later. After a successful interim period as Jose Mourinho's replacement, he was hired on a full-time basis as United manager in March, but poor results ever since have seen that decision called into question. Can he lead another turnaround at the club? Only time will tell.
Markus Babbel
Babbel's management career began brightly, as he presided over part of Stuttgart's Bundesliga title challenge in 2008-09. However, aside from a successful promotion campaign with Hertha Berlin two years later, there has been little to get excited about. Having also coached Hoffenheim and Luzern in Switzerland, the former defender made the switch to Western Sydney Wanderers in the A-League last year. They finished the season eighth in the 10-team division.
Thomas Linke
Instead of coaching, Linke opted to pursue more management-based roles after ending his playing career. He briefly served as sporting director at RB Leipzig in 2011 before resigning for personal reasons. Later that year he joined Ingolstadt, and under his guidance the club earned promotion in 2014-15. Relegation two years later brought his resignation, but he returned in November for the rest of the season.
Lothar Matthaus
Coaching has seen Matthaus embark on an intriguing post-playing career, managing Rapid Vienna, Partizan Belgrade, Hungary, Atletico Paranaense, Red Bull Salzburg, Maccabi Netanya and Bulgaria. None of them were particularly successful, however, and he mostly seen working as a pundit on German television these days.
Sammy Kuffour
It is fair to say Kuffour's career since retiring has been rather less nomadic than Matthaus'. Media appearances in his native Ghana have been regular, while he is now on the Ghanaian Football Association's 'normalisation committee', having been appointed after FIFA disbanded their executive committee last year following allegations of misconduct.
Alexander Zickler
Like his former strike partner, Zickler went to Austria to cut his teeth in the coaching field, working at Red Bull Salzburg for seven years. That stay is set to come to an end soon, as the former Germany international is to follow the club's first-team coach Marco Rose to Borussia Monchengladbach.
Substitutes:
Mehmet Scholl
Bayern icon Scholl spent the first few years post-retirement working with the club's youth teams and reserve side, with whom he enjoyed two spells. But, since quitting in 2013, he has been focusing on punditry and media work.
Thorsten Fink
A fairly prominent management career followed Fink's playing days, with Ingolstadt, Basel, Hamburg and APOEL among those he has managed. His most recent job was at Grasshoppers Zurich, but that ended poorly as he was sacked in March and Switzerland's most successful club were ultimately relegated at the end of the season.
Hasan Salihamidzic
Salihamidzic is once again an important figure at Bayern. The former winger is now sporting director and has been praised in recent times for his work in that domain, with the club particularly looking towards younger players.