July 8, 1990 made penalty taker Andreas Brehme a World Cup hero for eternity. Like Helmut Rahn, Gerd Müller and Mario Götze, he crowned Germany world champions. That’s not all that remains.
A penalty for eternity made Andreas Brehme a World Cup legend. The man who crowned Germany world champions in 1990 died of a cardiac arrest in Munich on Tuesday night at the age of 63.
With his goal in the World Cup final in Rome, the professional, who was praised for his two-footedness and who played for 1. FC Kaiserslautern for a long time and on the big stage for FC Bayern Munich and Inter Milan, became a significant figure in football history. Just a few weeks after the death of “Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer, German sport is losing another key figure from the national team that won Germany’s third World Cup title more than three decades ago.
July 8, 1990 in the Olympic Stadium shaped the image of the defensive player like no other moment. The World Cup final between Germany and Argentina was about to go into extra time when the DFB team was awarded a penalty. Because Lothar Matthäus didn’t feel comfortable in his new shoes, Brehme took on penalty killer Sergio Goycochea.
“Yeah, goal for Germany, 1-0 by Andreas Brehme. Everything as usual, flat right into the left corner. Goycochea knew everything. He just couldn’t hold it,” exclaimed Gerd Rubenbauer euphorically during his TV commentary. A few minutes later, Germany were world champions. And the life of Andreas Brehme, who is remembered by his companions as a cheerful, down-to-earth and positive person, changed suddenly. “Andy was our World Cup hero, but for me even more – he was my close friend and companion to this day,” said DFB sports director Rudi Völler on Tuesday. Unforgettable how Brehme cried on Völler’s chest in 1996 after the relegation with Lautern.
For Brehme it was clear: I’m going to hit the penalty spot now
Like the names of Helmut Rahn (1954), Gerd Müller (1974) or Mario Götze (2014), Brehme’s name will forever be remembered as a triumphant day for German football. “It was clear to me: I’m going to hit the penalty now,” he liked to recall the nerve-racking moment.
The Hamburg native was asked about this magical moment again and again. “It wasn’t just a blessing, it was much more,” said Brehme on the occasion of his 60th birthday. “I received a number of inquiries – that was huge.” Brehme was invited on TV shows and to a number of other events, and people almost always asked him the same question: What was it like to score the decisive penalty? “When you stand there, the goal gets smaller and smaller, and the goalkeeper gets bigger and bigger,” he said then. “You have to be convinced of it, otherwise I wouldn’t have gone for the penalty.”
The former Inter professional loved Italy
He emphasized three years ago that he was no longer drawn back to the football business. At the time, Brehme liked to say that he often got up very early, “around half past six, seven,” and went on a bike ride. Even long after his four years at Inter Milan from 1988 to 1992, he loved Italy and enjoyed spending time in Bardolino on Lake Garda. Again and again he was drawn “away over the Brenner”. In addition to his partner Susanne Schaefer, Brehme also leaves behind two sons from a previous partnership. “We have lost a great person and a loyal friend,” said Bayern Honorary President Uli Hoeneß.
Brehme was very touched by Beckenbauer’s death at the beginning of the year. The relationship between the winning goal scorer and the team boss at the time was very close. Brehme played in a total of three World Cup finals, two of them under Beckenbauer. In 1986 he was with Germany in the lost final against Argentina. He experienced his best time as a club player in Milan, where he became champion and UEFA Cup winner alongside Matthäus. He played 86 international matches for the national team, scoring 8 goals.
Grateful to my father for the profit dream
The great career began in his youth at HSV Barmbek-Uhlenhorst. The coach for many years was his father Bernd Brehme, a football coaching institution in the Hanseatic city. “A dream has come true, I became a professional and a national player,” Brehme once told “Kicker”. He is especially grateful to his father Bernd, “I’ve made it this far because of him, he was my coach when I was young.”
According to legend, he had his son shoot medicine balls and run with lead vests. Last year, on the occasion of the club’s 100th anniversary, the “Hamburger Abendblatt” recalled how young Andi, as a six or seven-year-old, ran towards the empty goal during half-time breaks in the men’s team’s games and shot in from 16 meters. The connection to Hamburg remained – even during his professional positions in Saarbrücken, Lautern, Bayern, Inter and Real Zaragoza.
Less successful in the coaching business
Brehme’s career as a coach in Kaiserslautern, Unterhaching and as assistant to Giovanni Trapattoni at VfB Stuttgart was less successful. But that didn’t change the fact that his place as one of the greats in German football history is secure. Also because of many sayings that are attributed to him. “You have shit on your feet, you have shit on your feet!” was one of those statements that every fan knows.
The advertisement that Brehme made for the medical-psychological examination (MPU) – commonly called the idiot test – was reminiscent of a not so funny moment in his eventful life. In an interview with “Stern” in November 2022, he spoke about a “serious mistake” while driving with a blood alcohol level of 1.78. His driver’s license was gone and he had to pay a fine of 30,000 euros. “It takes some time until you realize that driving drunk is not just a mistake, but that you have to question your life and change it,” Brehme said at the time. He tried to help others.
Brehme was able to smile about a faux pas that went viral. In a video clip he sent birthday wishes to a fan – and at the end of the film a lot of his wife’s bare skin could be seen in the background. Brehme demonstrated the looseness that people liked so much about him. “Now the whole world knows what a great wife I have! It shouldn’t have happened, but I can laugh at myself. In the future, I’d better let Susanne film…”, Brehme told “Bild” last year.