At half-time in extra-time of the 2014 World Cup final, Mario Götze tied the laces of his neon-yellow football boots one more time. Shortly afterwards, head coach Joachim Löw sent him back out onto the pitch. The 22-year-old was Germany's biggest talent at the time. Yet his ultimate breakthrough on the international stage was a long time coming at this tournament. Too great were the fluctuations in his performance. He started three of the six games in the run-up to the final and came on as a substitute twice. In the magnificent 7-1 semi-final defeat of Brazil, he did not feature at all.
In the final, he came on in the 88th minute as a replacement for the new World Cup record goalscorer, Miroslav Klose. When the game went into the final 15 minutes at the famous Maracanã Stadium in Rio de Janeiro, Germany were still deadlocked 0-0 with Argentina. A veritable fight to the finish. With both teams missing chances to take the lead and the game threatening to go to penalties, who would make the difference? Argentina's superstar and multiple World Footballer of the Year Lionel Messi or maybe the German prodigy.
Wearing these boots, still soiled by turf from the Maracana stadium, Mario Götze dispatched an entire country into footballing heaven. Eighteen years after winning the European Championship in England, Germany had finally claimed another title. Their fourth World Cup. The restructuring of the talent development programme at the beginning of the millennium had paid off. Götze was just one of the many hugely talented players to emerge from the new youth academies. Today, he lines up alongside legendary World Cup final goalscorers of the calibre of Helmut Rahn, Gerd Müller and Andreas Brehme. The comparison with Messi is no longer relevant.
Deutsches Fußballmuseum