Littbarski was the caretaker manager of VfL Wolfsburg after taking over from Steve McClaren from 7 February to 17 March 2011.

The stars on the team during Littbarski's first few years were goalkeeper Harald Schumacher, goal scorer Dieter Müller, and midfielder Bernd Schuster.

He later played for RC Paris in Ligue 1 as well as for JEF United Ichihara and Brummel Sendai in Japan.

West Germany manager Jupp Derwall started him in a three-man front line alongside Klaus Fischer and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Against France in the semi-final, Littbarski scored the opening goal, and later was successful on a penalty in the deciding shoot-out.

The now legendary match ended in a 3–3 draw, with Littbarski involved in the dramatic extra-time equalizer, crossing to Horst Hrubesch, who headed to Klaus Fischer, who scored with an overhead bicycle kick.

Littbarski had minutes earlier provided the pass that Rummenigge scored from to cut France's lead to 3–2.

At the UEFA Euro 1984, West Germany, with Littbarski, were eliminated in the group stage after a string of poor performances.

The 1986 FIFA World Cup in Mexico, while successful for West Germany, proved less so for Littbarski personally.

In 1987, he played in a friendly match against England and scored two goals, one directly from a corner, as the West Germans won 3-1.

In December 2006, Littbarski was appointed the manager of Avispa Fukuoka, a J2 League side that was newly demoted to the second division after the 2006 season.

[7] After Steve McClaren was sacked on 7 February 2011, Littbarski was appointed caretaker manager of VfL Wolfsburg.