Andreas Brehme, who fired West Germany to the 1990 World Cup title with the only goal in the final against Diego Maradona’s Argentina, has died. He was 63.
Brehme’s partner Susanne Schaefer confirmed his death in a statement to Germany’s dpa news agency on Tuesday. Schaefer said Brehme died “suddenly and unexpectedly” in the night from a cardiac arrest.
Brehme’s former club Bayern Munich said it was “deeply shocked” by his sudden death. Former teammates and others paid tribute to the player who was known affectionately as “Andi” Brehme, a star of German soccer in the 1980s and 1990s.
“I am incredibly sad about this shocking news,” Bayern honorary president Uli Hoeneß said. “None of us will ever forget Andreas Brehme, because he was more than a goal in the World Cup final in Rome. We’ve lost a great person and a loyal friend.”
Brehme’s success in Rome was celebrated a short distance away at Inter Milan, the Italian club he was playing for at the time as part of a formidable German trinity including national teammates Jürgen Klinsmann and Lothar Matthäus.
As captain, Matthäus would normally have taken West Germany’s penalty in the final, but the No. 10 broke his boots in the first half and didn’t feel confident even though he’d changed them. He sent Brehme forward instead.
“Someone has to step up. And for us, it was a case of whoever was feeling confident,” Brehme said in a FIFA interview in 2017. “The main thing is that the penalty goes in and we become world champions.”
Brehme had already helped Inter to the Serie A title in 1989. He would go to win the UEFA Cup with the club two years later.
“A magnificent player, a true Interista. Ciao Andy, forever a legend,” said Inter, which announced that it would wear black armbands during its Champions League match against Atlético Madrid later Tuesday.
Brehme won the Bundesliga twice, once with Bayern in 1987 and once in Kaiserslautern’s improbable run to the championship in 1998, in its first season since promotion.
But Brehme, who played mostly as an attacking left back, was crucial to Germany’s third World Cup title.
He scored in the semifinal against England, which West Germany eventually won on penalties, and his 85th-minute penalty decided the final in Rome against Argentina. Winning the World Cup brought a wave of national celebrations across Germany, which was in the process of reunification after the fall of the Berlin Wall the year before.
He went on to play a total of 86 international games for West Germany and unified Germany.
Brehme retired from playing after winning the Bundesliga with Kaiserslautern and went into coaching, first with Kaiserslautern and then second-division Unterhaching. He didn’t enjoy the same success he had as a player. His last coaching role was at Stuttgart as assistant to coach Giovanni Trapattoni in the 2005-06 season.
Brehme’s death comes the month after that of his friend Franz Beckenbauer, who coached the World Cup-winning team in 1990.
“As a young boy I had, like probably every boy in Germany had, a Franz Beckenbauer poster hanging above my bed,” Brehme told dpa last month. “Later, he became my boss and I could work with him. And in the end we became close friends. So I have a lot to thank Franz for.”
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