‘I didn’t engage with the Bowie song’: Peter Schilling

First released in 1983 the German new wave song has since become a byword for 80s cool – now it is about to unite the tournament on the terraces

If you are planning to brush up on your German ahead of tonight’s opener of the European Championships, one umlaut-heavy phrase could come in handy: Völlig losgelöst.

Meaning “completely untethered”, these two words form the chorus of Peter Schilling’s Major Tom, a German new wave song that first climbed to the top of charts around the world in 1983 but stands good chances of becoming the unofficial anthem of the football tournament summer 41 years later.