Horst Eckel was the last surviving player in the 1954 World Championship.
Of the year 1954 World Cup champion Horst Eckel has died on Friday at the age of 89, the German Football Association said.
Eckel was the last surviving player on the West German championship team to win the World Cup in 1954.
Eckel was the youngest player on the team to rise from a two-goal chase to a 3-2 win over Hungary in a final that was later called the “Miracle of Bern”.
The surprise victory was said to have shaped West Germany’s post-war identity. German teams also won World Championships in 1974, 1990 and 2013.
Eckel and the team captain Fritz Walter were the only German players to play in all six matches in the 1954 World Cup.
In his club career, Eckel twice won the pre-Bundesliga German Championship at Kaiserslautern in 1951 and 1953.
“Unfortunately I never saw Eckel play, but he was a role model for me in every way,” the German head coach Hansi Flick said the Football Association website.
“His warm-heartedness was contagious, and his social commitment unique. German football will miss him very much. ”
Last week, Eckel was named to the German Football Honor Gallery in Dortmund along with the 2014 World Champion Miroslav Klosen with.
“Now I’m the last on my team,” Eckel said in 2017 when a teammate of the world champion team Hans Schaefer was dead.
“Pictures of every teammate are in my eyes, and also memories of laughter and joy. Fellowship and football unite us forever. ”
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