A bit of Thomas Häßler
Häßler starts on the right, facing up Dorigo and taking him inside, until he and Batty are next to each other and there's a hand-off, when Häßler moves the ball onto someone else. One blink later and he's on the left wing.
Once upon a time I was being shown around a wardrobe full of old memorabilia by David Batty, who pulled a jaw-dropping shirt from his collection: a 2001 Reebok-made Bolton away shirt with 'Whitlow 3' on the back. No, this was not a dream! He also showed me the shirts he wore while winning the title with Leeds United in 1992, and I showed my naivety by asking which games he'd worn these particular home and away shirts in. "All of them," he told me, "They only gave us one."
One shirt that has stayed in my mind through the decade since this day is a surprisingly heavy, deep-green away kit of the German national team. It's the good one, the one everyone likes, with the colours of the flag zig-zagging across the front and a round collar. "Thomas Häßler," Batty said. "They beat us 1-0 and he ran rings round us. Class."
Batty isn't known as an enjoyer of football that didn't involve him: he just loved to play. But while he is withering about some of the people he encountered in the game, he has always been a keen appreciator of players. So I've stayed curious about how quickly he brought Häßler's name to mind, how easily his praise came for a player he only faced once, in September 1991. About how he chose one of the stars of the World Cup winning West Germany team and Euro '96 winning Germany side who is mentioned less than Matthäus, Klinsmann or Völler. A fellow midfielder, a rival he couldn't best. A connoisseur's choice. It sounded like, at the end of the game, he sought that shirt out on purpose.
Leeds United's Championship winning season, game by game, as written at Leedsista.com.
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A rematch might have been interesting, so Batty could have tested himself in his pomp. In autumn 1991 Häßler was already a World Cup winner, just transferred from Juventus to Roma in his second £5m move. Batty was just beginning his second top-flight season with Leeds, and this was his sixth cap. He's still becoming great. In the first five minutes he's in trouble with the referee, twice in thirty seconds. First he's walking away after putting Stefan Effenberg on the floor, looking blankly at the ref and making a 'got the ball' gesture. Moments later Karl-Heinz Riedle is rolling around and Batty is looking at the ref again, trying to work out why he didn't spot the obvious dive. Blinded by Riedle's World Cup winner's medal probably, and that was something Batty had to adapt to.