“We’re showing once again that McDonald’s thinks regionally,” said the firm’s vice chairman Holger Beeck.

Hoeneß, who co-owns the HoWe sausage factory with his son Florian in Nuremberg, came up with the Teutonic treat – three small bratwurst smothered in mustard and grilled onions on a roll – which McDonald’s will sell as Nürnburger. The name is slight alteration of the typical regional sausages known as Nürnberger that is meant to play on McDonald’s burger sales.

The country’s 1,361 McDonald’s locations will begin the three-month offer on July 5.

“The hamburger became famous around the world, why should the Nürnburger have any less potential,” Hoeneß said.

The FC Bayern president has been adding humorous videos about his “invention” to his own website over the past few weeks.

And just in time for McDonald’s PR blitz, next month’s edition of the country’s top consumer organisation Stiftung Warentest’s magazine gave the Hoeneß family HoWe brand sausages their coveted gut seal of approval.

Germans eat an estimated 2.7 kilos of bratwurst each year, the magazine said, but they may be disappointed to find out only one in four of the bratwurst tested received the “good” rating.

The government-funded but independent foundation chose grilling season as an appropriate time to review 19 bratwurst sausages available at stores around the country.

Nürnberger bratwurst from Rewe, HoWe Original and Schlütter’s Original took three of the top spots, results showed. Meanwhile Wolf brand Thüringer and sausages from Bratmaxe took second and fifth place.

According to the organisation, it is not surprising that both Nürnberger and Thüringer sausages tested so well, because they are regionally protected and must meet higher standards that dictate the origin and composition of the meat.

While the organisation also found three of the sausage brands to be “deficient,” they found that many of them still exceeded test guidelines for meat content, containing more flesh than gristle. But those labelled as “top quality” or “delicatessen” were not always the best, they added.