"I had tears in my eyes," the German captain remembers of the closing seconds of his team's 1-0 win over Argentina four years ago in Brazil. "I couldn't believe I was so close. It was kind of a feeling of 'finally you will have it.' "
"The World Cup final. The dream of a football player's life," he continues. "And I was so close to having it."
Though their World Cup adventures ended differently, one in joy and the other in anger, Schweinsteiger's and Sagnol's experiences have earned both men membership in an elite club. Fewer than 400 people still alive know what it feels like to play in a World Cup final, a number that will swell slightly following this summer's tournament in Russia.