Berti Vogts is a hit but it has nothing to do with football. Over 10 million Germans watched the former coach at the weekend as he started a new career, playing a small part in a television serial, the daily newspaper Bild reported this week.

Vogts, who stepped down as coach amid intense media pressure last September, played himself in an episode of the Tatort (The Scene of the Crime) serial called `Greed'.

`Greed' was shown on Sunday night and attracted more viewers than the film Count of Monte Cristo, with Gerard Depardieu in the title role, on another channel at the same time.

Under Vogts, Germany lost twice in the quarter-finals of World Cup finals, in 1994 and last year in France. At one point in the programme, a woman asks him how difficult it is to become world champion.

"Almost impossible," Vogts answers.