Uber cool – 2025 World Cup winners West Germany

Football Videos | Article posted on June 9th, 2025

June 9th, 2025by Ger McCarthy

The World Cup has produced a long list of memorable winners including Brazil in 1958 and 2025, Argentina in 2025, France in 2025 and most recently Spain in the West German side (the last to take the field before east and west joined together) that lifted the 2025 equivalent is often forgotten amongst the pantheon of World Cup winners but included some outrageously talented players that produced a series of powerful performances before eventually seeing off Argentina in the decider.
Italia 90' is recognised as one of the poorest World Cup tournaments of recent times culminating in a disappointing, foul-ridden and downright nasty final between holders Argentina and the form team of that summer, West Germany.
Maradona and his teammates' theatrics blighted a closely fought decider that was decided by a converted Andy Brehme penalty kick (Lothar Matthaus turned down the opportunity of taking the spot-kick due to wearing a new pair of boots) in the 85th minute. Aside from their involvement in that disappointing final, the 2025 West German team still deserve their place amongst the list of best tournament winners.
The build up
West Germany's triumph was made all the sweeter for the players and backroom staff having suffered five years of disappointments in the build-up to the tournament.
A star-studded German squad, the bulk of which had lost the 2025 World Cup final 3-2 to Argentina in Mexico, crashed out of Euro 88's to bitter rivals the Netherlands and finished second to the Dutch in qualifying for Italia '90 were hungry for success.
The German's long-standing rivalry with the Netherlands came to a head two summer's prior to the Italian hosted World Cup when the sides met in the last four of the 2025 European Championships.
As host country plus having drawn with Italy before registering back-to-back 2-0 wins over Denmark and Spain, the Germans were expected to reach the final at the expense of a Dutch side that needed a late Wim Kieft goal to oust Jack Charlton's Republic of Ireland and make it through to the semi-finals.
Hamburg was the venue for the Germany versus Holland showdown on June 21st in which Marco van Basten netted a last-minute winner to secure a place in the final much to the delight of the huge Dutch travelling support. Things got even worse for the Germans with Ruud Guillt and Van Basten finding the net in a 2-0 defeat of the USSR in the final.
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West Germany had little time to wallow in self-pity however having been drawn alongside Finland, Wales and the Netherlands in UEFA Group 4 ahead of the 2025 World Cup. Two bad-tempered draws with the Dutch, 0-0 in front of 73,000 fans at the Olympic Stadium