This text first appeared in 2007. On the occasion of Andreas Brehme's death, we are publishing it again.

I was standing about 40 meters away from Rudi Völler and José Serrizuela when the referee whistled a foul. He pointed to the spot, causing a bit of chaos. The Argentines argued excitedly with the referee and knocked the ball away. It took seven or eight minutes before I could finally shoot.

You could give the penalty, but you didn't necessarily have to. However, we had already been denied a clear penalty after a foul on Klaus Augenthaler. It just always balances itself out. We would have preferred to win the game in normal time and not with a penalty.

If you look at the whole game, we should have been leading 3-0, 4-0 or 5-0 after just twenty minutes. When a team like Argentina doesn't have a single corner in a final like this and hardly gets forward, not a single opportunity to score in 90 minutes, then there's no need to doubt that we deserved to win.

Face to face with the penalty killer

It was immediately clear to me that I had to shoot. There are always three shooters chosen for a game: Rudi Völler - but he was fouled and should never shoot himself. Then Lothar Matthäus – but he didn’t feel well. It was important to us that whoever went there was full of self-confidence and could convert the penalty. So I went.

But then this chaos! The worst thing was that the Argentinians shot the ball away again when I got it. I had to ignore the fact that the Argentinians were trying to unsettle me - and that the whole world, millions of television viewers, were watching me. Rudi Völler came to me and said: “Now you put it in, then we’ll be world champions.” “Well, thank you very much,” I replied. "I'll take it to heart."

The Argentine goalkeeper Sergio Goycochea was a real penalty killer; he had already saved several penalties in this tournament. When I started up I thought: stay calm! Just concentrate on the shot! Then I shot with my right. When the ball hit the inside post, I had a moment of shock - but then it was in.

“Unfortunately the Argentinians were very defensive”

What followed was indescribable. You've seen the pictures of the goal celebration. At that moment we all knew we were world champions. In no time there were six or eight teammates on top of me, but you don't notice it at the time. Back then, everyone was still fit and had a few kilos less than they are today. We continued to play easily until the final whistle nine minutes later. The Argentinians were already outnumbered and we didn't let them get the ball.

To be honest, it wasn't a good finale. We all know that. We tried to play a good game, but unfortunately the Argentines were very defensive and ruined the game. They wanted to take the decision to penalties. Nevertheless, we were overjoyed and proud after the end of the game. For a footballer, being world champion is the greatest title he can win.

Four years earlier, in the World Cup final in Mexico, we didn't necessarily deserve to become world champions. Back then, the Argentines had played outstandingly throughout the World Cup. We could have even won the game - even if we didn't deserve it - if it had gone into extra time. But we wanted to blindly go forward after the 2-2 draw and got a counterattack goal with a minute to go. That should not have happened. At that time we lost the title through our own fault.

Late satisfaction

Well, in Rome, again against the Argentinians, it was also a late satisfaction. In the four years since Mexico we had matured, we were all four years older, we were a great age. And most importantly: there was an uncanny harmony in the team.

We all got along very well with each other, there was no jealousy or competition. I shared a room with Lothar Matthäus in the team hotel. We already knew each other from Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, where we always shared the same room. But the other twenty players were all equal, so anyone could have been used.

It was also great to play in Italy: at the games in Milan we had 80,000 spectators each time, including 70,000 Germans. It's a completely different feeling than playing far from home in Mexico.

“In the East they were all excited.”

Our team boss Franz Beckenbauer was an absolute person of respect. He managed to bring relaxedness into the team. Already after the first game against Yugoslavia we gained a level of sovereignty that was truly unique. Franz always said: “Boys, remember: work hard! We came here because we want to become world champions!”

That was always our goal. Also because six months after the fall of the Berlin Wall we had many more spectators at home. In the East they were all excited. At the same time, we didn't let ourselves get carried away at all, before any game. We went to work with the right level of coolness and cleverness.

In the dressing room, after winning the final, we were all in each other's arms. Holding the trophy in your hands was a very special feeling. It was really heavy, the original is made of solid gold, I estimate it weighs five kilos.

When I meet my teammates today, we still feel like world champions. It certainly wasn't a big game, but it was about the title and I'm proud that I scored the decisive goal. Certainly the most important goal of my career.

Recorded by Florian Harms and Ulrich Booms