Alex Alves: a lonely death at 37. Hertha 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.\n\nIt 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.\n\nThose 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.