24 years ago after Ireland had gone home and Italia 90 somehow continued on, West Germany and Argentina faced each other in Rome for the World Cup final.
In a sour, narky, but rather fitting game, Argentina conceded a controversial penalty late on, after Jurgen Klinnsman performed a typically hilarious pirouette in the box.
Standing over the penalty was Inter Milan's Andreas Brehme. The left back had scored a fortuitous free-kick against England in the semi-final, with the help of Paul Parker's back.
With only five minutes left, Brehme slotted into the left hand corner.
Brehme went on to play for Real Zaragoza and Kaiseslautern. However, life outside of football has not been kind to the hero of 1990. Brehme got into massive debt in the past few years, has had to sell his house, and was declared bankrupt last December.
A former player of his SpVgg Unterhaching, Olivier Straube has offered him a job at his company - cleaning toilets. Straube came off rather harsh when explaining how the role would help Brehme, mind.
We are ready to take Andreas on in our bathroom cleaning business. He will learn that what really counts is proper work and real life. It would help him improve his image. To me, that’s help.
The man who coached West Germany to that World Cup win, Franz Beckenbauer told the Corriere dello Sport that football community in Germany should band together to help Brehme.
We have the responsibility to try and get him out of this situation. We have the responsibility to try and get him out of this situation.
