Lothar Matthäus (59) is stuck in Dubai with his wife Anastasia and son Milan, as the former soccer star said in an interview with the "Abendzeitung". He had preferred a trip there planned for the end of March after the DFL had suspended Bundesliga operations until early April and his job as a sky expert was therefore suspended. Because of the corona crisis, the family is now stuck in Dubai.
Matthäus explains: "I can no longer enter Budapest – even though I have been my main residence there for 16 years. The Hungarians have closed the borders for everyone who does not have a Hungarian passport. So I cannot go to my apartment there." His wife is Russian, the 59-year-old continues: "It is difficult for her to enter Germany at the moment because she does not have an EU ID. So I cannot go to my second home in Munich. Flights from Dubai to Hungary and Germany is set, almost everyone to Europe too. "You have to be lucky to get tickets. The last option was private planes. "
"It is very stressful"
And Matthäus adds about the situation: "It is very stressful. Since we left, horrific news, new numbers of infected people have been coming from Germany every day. We currently feel safer in Dubai." The case numbers across the United Arab Emirates are not as high as in Europe, he says. In Dubai, medical care is excellent: "With the rapid spread of the corona virus in Germany, we ask ourselves the question: Do you want to go to Germany at all? On the other hand, we miss our familiar surroundings, the family, the friends. You are completely on your own That makes you very thoughtful, "continued the football expert in the" Abendzeitung ".
"We are blocked here," reveals the 59-year-old. "My mother is 89, she lives in my hometown Herzogenaurach largely isolated, hardly gets out and luckily gets little or nothing from the madness. My brother Wolfgang also lives there, also very withdrawn."