The Sidelines : German Soccer Tops Sports Poll

The West German team that won its third World Cup soccer title and heavyweight Buster Douglas, who knocked out Mike Tyson, have been voted the top 1990 sports headliners in a poll of sports editors of Associated Press subscribers in Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America.

West Germany’s victory received 679 points in the voting, while Douglas’ stunning knockout of Tyson and his subsequent loss of the world title to Evander Holyfield, received 528 votes.

The controversial awarding of the 1996 Summer Olympics to Atlanta was third with 442 points. Cameroon, the tiny African nation that reached the quarter-finals of the World Cup, was fourth with 338 points.

Fifth, with 327 points, was the merger of sports powers East and West Germany.