Football Germany and Inter mourn one of their unforgettable champions.
Andreas Brehme died in Munich, aged just 63, from cardiac arrest.
For the Germans he represents a winning icon like that of Paolo Rossi for the Azzurri, in Italy he left his mark in the record-breaking Inter led by Trapattoni: Brehme, moreover, was the author of the goal, from a penalty, which in 1990 gave the football World Cup to Germany.
A rematch against Diego Armando Maradona's Argentina who had beaten them in the final in Mexico four years earlier.
It was the Italy '90 World Cup.
And a good part of Brehme's playing career is linked to the Bel Paese.
With Inter, led by Giovanni Trapattoni, in the 1988-89 season he won the "record scudetto" and a UEFA Cup.
Among the strongest in the history of the Milanese club who greeted him on social media: "A magnificent player, a great Inter fan. Hello Andy, forever a legend".
The Nerazzurri will play tonight in the Champions League against Atletico Madrid with mourning on their arms.
Taciturn, although always smiling, and very reserved, he reflected the stereotype that Italy had and partly has of Germans: serious and hard worker.
Yet he was one of the driving forces of that very strong team even off the pitch.
This can be understood from the words of his companions who now remember him in shock
.
"Hello my friend, or as I called you 'shazzy', you shouldn't have done this to me, you shouldn't have done this to all of us>, wrote on social media Walter Zenga, historic goalkeeper and captain of that Inter team, who wanted to greet him publicly. "You left too soon my friend but I know that from up there you will protect us and as usual you will stand there and take penalties, one with the right and one with the left...". Yes, because Brehme was ambidextrous, which was rare in those years old, and could play both on the right and on the left. He was born on 9 November 1960 in Hamburg and had started playing since he was a child: at the age of 5 he was already kicking the ball for the first time in a local team coached by his father, a former player amateur.
Very quick, he was very good technically as he was capable of playing in various areas of the pitch.
His natural foot was the left but he made no distinction and kicked with both.
However, his main characteristic was determination.
An episode describes his character well: he managed to score a goal from distance with his fractured foot, after entering the pitch by taking off his cast and using a bandage.
After the meeting he was forced to undergo surgery.
Rejected from the Hamburg youth team, he indignantly refused to play for the second team of his hometown club and went to cut his teeth in the third division with Saarbrucken: there he won the championship and won the shirt of the West Germany Under 21 national team. After some transfers, his first consecration came at Bayern Munich where he met Lothar Matthaus.
“We will always keep him in our hearts, as a world champion and even more so as a very special person,” the club wrote.
In Bavaria he won the championship and the German Super Cup, and reached the Champions League final in 1988. In that same year he moved to president Ernesto Pellegrini's Inter where his old teammate Matthaus had already landed.
He was the Inter of the Germans.
Matthaus was the most celebrated but over the course of the season, with his "bucking" and crosses on the wing, Brehme entered the hearts of the fans.
Trap was on the bench: that year Inter won the Scudetto with a record number of points in the league, an Italian Super Cup and a UEFA Cup.
At home he is considered a hero, consecrated precisely at Italia '90: that 8 July Brehme on the spot, the ball going towards the inside post, and in.
"I trembled" Brehme would later say, but that was where his legend was born.
At a World Cup that he also managed to unify the hearts of the Germans who until recently had been divided into two states.
A month and a half ago the death of another great man, Franz Beckenbauer, now that of the younger Brehme shocks everyone.
The announcement was made by his wife.
"Andreas passed away suddenly and unexpectedly following a cardiac arrest. We ask that you respect our privacy during this difficult time and refrain from asking questions", the message from his partner Susanne Schaefer.
Another champion who is leaving soon, one of the many, too many, athletes who were protagonists in sport in the 1980s.
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