WHEN you become a European champion, you experience an intense emotional connection with the people of your country that you will share for the rest of your life.
There is nothing to compare with winning a major tournament for your national team.
Collecting trophies with your club is great but winning a Euros or a World Cup is the pinnacle — and I really hope England’s players get to experience this by beating Spain on Sunday.
Since we won the 1990 World Cup and Euro 96, every German fan I come across in pubs or shops or wherever will tell me where they were at that moment in time that you shared with them.
Some will tell you they were in the stadium or abroad on holiday.
They will never forget, they will cherish it forever and they’ll be a companion for life.
Sometimes they even give you a free beer but actually not very often!
After we won Euro 96, we were staying at The Landmark hotel in Marylebone, London, and they were out of drinks by 2am or 3am.
We were very disappointed. We had to empty out all our mini-bars so that we could keep partying because they called it a night at the bar.
And I will never forget flying back to Frankfurt Airport. For the last couple of miles our plane was escorted by two fighter jets, guiding us down to the runway, the pilots smiling from their cockpits. That was very special.
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After you win, those are an unforgettable couple of days — just like in 1990 when we spent two days partying in Rome after winning the World Cup.
England just need one more win to experience all this.
Spain are the team of the tournament — but England are the team of the moment after the way they beat Holland with that 90th-minute goal from Ollie Watkins. England might just be peaking at exactly the right time.
Spain have been so impressive — they walked all over Italy and Croatia in the group stage, then beat Germany and France. But none of that gives them any right to be champions of Europe.
England have to take that confidence and willpower they showed in the semi-final and continue to ride that wave.
It’s becoming a tidal wave. I have a good feeling about England.
Their first half against Holland was the England we’ve been waiting for — better late than never!
The tempo of the passing and the movement off the ball, they enjoyed the running, they wanted to unlock the Dutch side — they looked confident enough to give Spain a message that they are up for this final.
GARETH SOUTHGATE and his players will walk in the footsteps of sporting infamy on Sunday.
And they also have the chance to wipe out the memories of English football’s most shameful episode by replacing it with glorious triumph.
For many, the Olympiastadion will always be the place where Jesse Owens humiliated Adolf Hitler in his own backyard.
But the 1936 Olympics WERE used by the Nazis as pure propaganda, as a statement about the supposed supremacy of the “Aryan race”.
The ghosts of those Games still flit between the towers and the colosseum-style architecture.
Fans walking in on Sunday will see the plinth where the Olympic cauldron was lit by Fritz Schilgen – handpicked by propagandist film-maker Leni Riefenstahl – still there, high in the stands above one goal.
And two years later, when the FA disgracefully ordered England’s players to raise their arm in the Nazi salute before beating Germany in a friendly, it seemed that the British state was implicitly accepting Hitler’s authority and power.
The Three Lions have the opportunity to right that ancient wrong yet nothing can detract from the stadium’s place in the pantheon of sport’s darkest hours.
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It’s a brain game now, it’s all in the head, and they showed me enough to convince me they can beat Spain.
As a manager, when you make a sub, you always hope they will make an impact but there’s zero guarantee.
When it works out like it did for Gareth Southgate, and Watkins takes his one opportunity, this is the moment you live for as a manager.
Everyone was waiting for Southgate, his players and fans to experience a real emotional connection — and the joy from Watkins’ goal has created that, even if it was a bit late in the tournament.
It was a loud call to England supporters to make them believe. Now the nation believes in what Southgate is doing.
When I was manager of Germany at the 2006 World Cup, I brought on a young right winger, David Odonkor, as a sub when our group-stage match against Poland was goalless.
Everyone was asking how I could bring on this kid for such a big game but he was excellent and he assisted our late winner. That was in the same stadium, at Dortmund, as the England-Holland game and gave us our connection with the nation. Although we finished third at that World Cup, a lot of German people remember it as a summer fairytale.
It’s so important for a manager, staff and senior players to ensure players like Watkins keep feeling appreciated, respected and fully part of the project.
Because when you get your chance at a tournament, a split-second can change your life — as it has for Watkins with that brilliant finish to get England into their first major final on foreign soil.
It’s a 24-7 thing to keep those players feeling loved. A good team looks after those who aren’t getting many minutes.
Gareth has mentioned that England have one day’s less rest than Spain but I don’t think that matters.
The players are used to playing every three days. The adrenalin will see them through. There will be zero tiredness. If anything, players can have too much energy. They need to be able to sleep.
I know there are concerns in England about players keeping their heads, Jude Bellingham especially.
But I’d want a great player like Bellingham to play on the edge, while still controlling his temper.
I saw the Uruguay v Colombia Copa America semi-final and thought they were going to start killing each other.
A Colombian player, Daniel Munoz, lost his head and was sent off for an elbow before half-time and they had to suffer with ten men to win.
But I don’t expect that from England, they have their heads right.
Spain are a great team. Lamine Yamal, 17 today, is an incredible talent who brings to mind a young Pele.
So it will be a festival in Berlin tomorrow with unbelievable energy and I can’t wait to be there.
If these England players can do it, they will never forget it.
Because they will be reminded every day for the rest of their lives.
