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That penalty in Rome defined Andreas Brehme and his duality, that of the world champion hero who after touching football glory knew the economic miseries of poor management of his financial resources. In recent years, news has been reported about the troubles suffered by that blonde who lined up on the wing as well as in midfield, who hit the ball with his right hand as well as with his left foot. Brehme died in Munich on the night of Monday to Tuesday. He was 63 years old.
Author of the goal that gave Germany the world title in 1990, his death comes a few weeks after that of the coach who guided that team, Franz Beckenbauer. Brehme is the first player from that combo to say goodbye. “These are very sad days for German football and for that team,” says Pierre Littbarski, another glory of German football.
Littbarski, Völler, Hassler and Matthäus, who won the Ballon d’Or that year, were on the pitch at the Olympic Stadium in Rome when the Uruguayan Codesal awarded a dubious penalty five minutes from time. Matthäus had scored the one that had given the team a place in the quarterfinals against Czechoslovakia and had also made no mistake in the decisive shootout in the semifinals against England. But he was erased due to an alleged problem with his boots and Beckenbauer pointed to Brehme to challenge the Argentine goalkeeper Goycoechea, the most accredited penalty saver of the moment.
A couple of years ago a German television channel contacted them to delve into the intrastory of that episode: “I knew you were going to throw it to my right,” the goalkeeper told him. What he didn’t know is that Brehme, who was ambidextrous although he was more comfortable with a left foot which he excelled in fouls, was going to execute the maximum penalty with his right hand. “I had been hit on my left leg and I thought it was safer to use my right leg,” explained the German. In fact, from eleven meters he always felt safer with his right.
That year he won the Bronze Ball, after Matthäus and Totó Schillaci and ahead of Paul Gascogne and Franco Baresi. He was then playing for Inter, where he had arrived after a couple of seasons at Bayern and a start to his professional career at Kaiserslautern, which ended up becoming the club of his heart. He returned in 1993 after a campaign in Zaragoza marred by disagreements with coach Víctor Fernández, with whom, however, some time later he forged a good relationship.
Brehme had married Pilar, a girl from Utebo, in Germany, and had a certain friendship with President Arturo Beltrán, so it did not seem like a bad destiny considering that the conditions were not met to join Hamburg, the club in his city and the one I dreamed of playing in when I was a child. When he arrived at Zaragoza he was already considered a winger, but in reality he had barely had continuity in that position at Inter and from then on in the national team. And the disagreements with the coach came from his obstinacy in lining up in midfield. When with ten games to go he refused to play as a full-back in a match against Tenerife, the club granted him the release.
He returned to Kaiserslautern, where he lived on a roller coaster ride: in 1996, when he was already thinking about retirement, he won the Cup and was relegated to the Second Division. “I have fallen into the mud and I am going to get out of here,” he assured. The team was promoted the following year and back among the greats they won the Bundesliga. At that moment he hung up his boots and began a new life in which new blows and a too early death awaited him.