The connection between the two is more mundane than that -- it's their cars.

Last year, the Golf that the German-born Pope used to drive when he held the lesser position of Cardinal Ratzinger, sold on online bidding site eBay for the princely sum of nearly 190,000 euros.

But although Klinsi might be up there with God for some Germans at the moment, it doesn't mean besotted fans are ready to fork out quite so much for his VW Beetle Convertible. After 68 bids on eBay, the car was passed in on Tuesday night after the highest offer of 24,850 euros ($31,600) lay underneath the undisclosed minimum price

Weekend bidding frenzy "not serious"

At one stage over the weekend, it appeared that Klinsmann devotees had gone completely nuts as the price spiralled to over 300,000 euros for a car that Klinsmann himself said was a rust bucket. But then eBay shut down the site because of what they said was "unserious bidding" and forced people to specially register for the auction.

It's uncertain if the current owner, who brought Klinsmann's Beetle ten years ago from a dealer, is going to put the 39-year-old car back up for sale.

But German soccer fans who are crying in their beer because they missed out on Klinsi's car, needn't worry. German goal keeper Jens Lehman's Mercedes and the Golf Convertible once owned by German team manager Oliver Bierhoff are still up for grabs on eBay.