World Cup hero
Matthäus let Brehme take the penalty at the 1990 World Cup
Former national team colleagues Lothar Matthäus (l) and Andreas Brehme come to Rudi Völler’s farewell gala in 2022. photo
© Roberto Pfeil/dpa
The football careers of Lothar Matthäus and Andreas Brehme ran parallel for a long time. In a podcast – recorded before Brehme’s death – Matthäus tells how his resignation made Brehme a World Cup hero.
Brehme, who died on Tuesday night at the age of 63, converted the penalty kick in Rome for a 1-0 win against Argentina and shot Germany to their third World Cup title. He decided not to take the penalty “in order not to risk the team’s success,” emphasized Matthäus.
The podcast was recorded before Brehme’s death. The Hamburg native and Matthäus had played together for many years in the national team, at FC Bayern Munich and for Inter Milan. “We were roommates, with the national team and with Inter Milan. We often spent 100 nights a year together,” Matthäus told the “Augsburger Allgemeine” (Wednesday): “This friendship wasn’t over even after our careers. It’s really, as if a family member had died.”