He was part of the West German team that won the 1990 FIFA World Cup and the unified German team that won the 1996 UEFA European Championship. Considered one of Germany’s premier strikers during the 1990s, he scored in all six major international tournaments he participated in, from Euro 1988 to the 1998 World Cup. In 1995, he came in third in the FIFA World Player of the Year award; in 2004 he was named in the FIFA 100 list of the “125 Greatest Living Footballers”. On 3 November 2016, he became the fifth player to be named as honorary captain of Germany.