IIn Tuesday evening's friendly match with the Netherlands, the time had come in the eleventh minute: Maximilian Mittelstädt scored 1:1, and Peter Schilling's hit “Major Tom” sounded to celebrate the goal in the Frankfurt stadium. An online petition launched on change.org by user Max Kirch on Sunday has paid off.

A petition has been collecting signatures since Sunday to have the Neue Deutsche Welle classic from 1982 played when the national team scores. As of Tuesday morning, nearly 70,000 supporters had signed the petition. On Tuesday afternoon, some media reported that the German Football Association wanted to host a “Major Tom” for the game in Frankfurt.

Singer Peter Schilling describes the moment he saw Germany win and heard “Major Tom” as the goal anthem as “another highlight of my now long career”. He told FAZ on Wednesday that he was still impressed by the huge interest in me and the song.

Schilling does not know why “Major Tom” was played only for the equalizer, that the equalizer was tied 1:1, but not for Niclas Füllkrug's 2:1 winning goal. Schilling does not want to comment on the background of how it happened that “Major Tom” changed the previous goal word “Kernkraft 400” for at least one goal and what will happen next.

However, it is unlikely that “Major Tom” will continue to be played as the goal anthem at the upcoming home European Championship. The goal ringtones for the European Championship will be the same for all teams and will be part of UEFA EURO 2024's official song, as reported by UEFA Sportschau.

However, there is a loophole: Associations can submit song suggestions both for warm-ups and after the game. So it may be that “Major Tom” can still be heard in the stadium.