Andreas Brehme is dead. The 1990 world champion passed away at the age of 63
Brehme’s partner Susanne Schaefer confirmed the death of the former exceptional player to the German Press Agency on Tuesday. He was 63 years old. “It is with deep sadness that I announce on behalf of the family that my partner Andreas Brehme passed away suddenly and unexpectedly tonight following a cardiac arrest,” Schaefer’s statement read. “We ask that you respect our privacy at this difficult time and refrain from asking questions.”
Brehme secured his place in the history books of German soccer when he converted the decisive penalty shortly before the end of the 1990 World Cup final in Italy to defeat Argentina 1-0 and give Germany their third World Cup title. He had already scored important goals in the previous tournament: In the 2-1 win over the Netherlands in the round of 16, Brehme scored to make it 2-0 at the interval, and in the semi-final against England he converted an indirect free-kick.
Brehme was already playing for Italy at club level at this time. In 1988, the defensive player had moved from FC Bayern Munich to Inter Milan and was considered one of the best full-backs in the world at the time. Born in Hamburg on November 9, 1960, he had previously played for his youth club HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst, 1. FC Saarbrücken and 1. FC Kaiserslautern. He returned to the Palatinate in 1993 – after an interlude in Spain with Real Zaragoza – and ended his career in 1998 after the sensational championship title as a promoted player. That season, however, he was only used sporadically
Coach at Kaiserslautern in Unterhaching
In total, Brehme won the German championship twice as a player and once in Italy. In addition, he won the UEFA Cup with Inter in 1991 and the DFB Cup with Kaiserslautern in 1996. In his career, he played 301 Bundesliga matches in which he scored 50 goals. He also scored eight goals in 86 international matches for Germany. The shot in the World Cup final was Brehme’s only penalty he scored in a DFB match.
After his playing career, Brehme was coach of FCK from 2000 to 2002 and reached the semi-finals of the UEFA Cup in 2001. In 2004/05, he coached SpVgg Unterhaching for a few months. His last stint on the coaching bench was as assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni at VfB Stuttgart in the 2005/06 season.
