The former handball goalkeeper Stefan Hecker is dead. The longtime player and manager of the traditional club TuSEM Essen died at the age of 60, as his wife Claudia confirmed. Hecker died on 19 August after a cancer. First, the "WAZ" had reported about it.
"We have quietly buried him in the closest circle," said Claudia Hecker. Andreas Michelmann, President of the German Handball Federation, called Hecker a "great German handball goalkeeper". He continued, "Our thoughts are with his wife Claudia and his family."
With the TuSEM, for which he was active between 1979 and 2000, Hecker was ever three times German champion (1986, 1987, 1989) and DHB Cup winner (1988, 1991, 1992). In 1989 he won the club the European Cup Winners' Cup. Overall, Hecker played 561 Bundesliga games before he finished his active career in 2004 as a player of VfL Gummersbach. The ex-keeper also played 159 caps and was elected in 1989 and 1990 for handball player of the year.
After his career he worked as manager for food and as managing director for VfL Gummersbach.