Tuesday morning brought the sad news that 1990 World Cup winner, Andreas Brehme, had died at the age of just 63.
The former Bayern Munich and Inter ace passed away suddenly and unexpectedly according to Brehme’s partner, Susanne Schaefer, who confirmed the death of the former international in a statement to Germany’s DPA news agency (h/t Star Tribune).
Brehme will be remembered by England fans for scoring the German goal in the semi-final of the World Cup, a free-kick which hit Paul Parker before looping up and over the despairing dive of Peter Shilton.
The game eventually went to penalties of course, and the Three Lions were agonisingly eliminated.
Brehme would go on to score the winning goal in the final against Argentina, and that meant manager, Franz Beckenbauer, became only the second person in history to win the World Cup as both a player (1974) and manager (1990).
Mario Zagallo had managed the feat as a player in 1958 and 1962, before taking the Selecao to victory in a classic final against Italy in 1970.
The only other man to complete the feat was Didier Deschamps who won the World Cup as a player for France in 1998 and then again as manager in 2018.
Brehme’s manager in 1990, Beckenbauer also sadly passed away earlier this year, and there will surely be another period of mourning for German football now.