Tragic — Hertha BSC

Alex Alves: a lonely death at 37. Hertha

Alex Alves: a lonely death at 37.

brought the Brazilian center forward to the Bundesliga in January 2000. The dream was to turn grey old Hertha into a glamorous club like Bayern, Schalke or Dortmund. The seven-million-euro signing fee, then a club record, was never truly justified, though Alves still scored 25 goals in 81 Bundesliga matches. One of them was magical: on September 30, 2000, he embarrassed Köln keeper Markus Pröll with a strike from the center circle, 52 meters out.

It became Germany’s Goal of the Year. Yet Alves rarely produced such brilliance often enough. He never really settled in Berlin, was caught driving without a license, turned up to the club Christmas party in a pale women’s fur coat, and danced through Berlin’s nightclubs.

Those escapades alone cost him more than 130,000 euros in fines. By summer 2003 Berlin had seen enough. Later diagnosed with leukemia, Alex Alves died impoverished in Brazil on November 14, 2012.

Helmut ‘Fiffi’ Kronsbein: he coached Hertha BSC from

Helmut ‘Fiffi’ Kronsbein: he coached Hertha BSC from 1966 to 1974, and rather successfully.

1966 to 1974, and rather successfully. He finally took the club back up in the 1968 promotion round and later guided them to third place in the Bundesliga. Yet in 1983 he fell under suspicion of murdering his wife.

The case caused a sensation. A later expert opinion proved his innocence; the court ruled there was no doubt she had died from electric shock. But the suspicions haunted Kronsbein until his death on March 27, 1991.