Football World Mourns Andreas Brehme, Hero of West Germany's 1990 World Cup Triumph

The 1990 football World Cup champion West Germany defeated Diego Maradona's Argentina team thanks to a masterful late penalty kick made by Andreas Brehme. He was sixty-three.

Brehme passed away on Tuesday, according to a statement sent to Germany's dpa news agency by his girlfriend Susanne Schaefer. Brehme passed away "suddenly and unexpectedly" in the night from a heart attack, according to Schaefer.


A star of German football in the 1980s and 1990s, the player popularly known as "Andi" Brehme was honored by former teammates and others.

"It's just unbelievable. National teammate Rudi Völler, who was fouled by Argentina's Roberto Sensini, which resulted in West Germany's 85th-minute penalty, expressed his profound sadness upon hearing of Andreas' untimely death. "Andi was our World Cup champion, but he was so much more to me. Even now, he remains a dear friend and comrade of mine. I will miss his amazing zest for life.

Brehme reportedly suffered greatly at the loss of his former mentor and coach, Franz Beckenbauer, who passed away last month.

Brehme's last season before retiring in 1998 saw Kaiserslautern win their final Bundesliga championship, and the team expressed their "deepest sadness" upon his untimely passing. Over the course of two spells, Brehme played with the German Red Devils for ten seasons. After winning the second division and being promoted, Brehme and Kaiserslautern won the German Cup in 1996. This resulted in the Bundesliga victory.

In 1987, Brehme and Bayern Munich shared the Bundesliga championship.

Brehme, who was born in Hamburg and mostly used as an attacking left-back, will always be connected to West Germany's World Cup victory in 1990.

He scored in the semi-final match against England, which West Germany ultimately won on penalties, in addition to his game-winning spot-kick in the final, which he blasted into the left-hand corner with his "weaker" right foot. Germany, which was undergoing reunification after the collapse of the Berlin Wall the previous year, celebrated widely after winning the championship.

Brehme was part of a strong German trio that also included national colleagues Jürgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthäus, and his goal in Rome was also applauded at Inter Milan, the Italian team he was playing for at the time.

Normally, as captain, Matthäus would have taken West Germany's penalty in the championship match, but even after switching boots in the first half, the No. 10 felt insecure. Instead, he sent Brehme forward.

"Someone has to take the lead. And for us, it was just a matter of who felt confidence," Brehme said in a 2017 Fifa interview. "The most important thing is that we win the world championship and the penalty is made."

Brehme said that the penalty call was "dubious," but it didn't stop him from scoring on the spot kick against Sergio Goycochea, the previously unbeaten goalie from Argentina.

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