Sunday, 17 November 1991. On the training ground of 1. FC Köln, coach Jörg Berger asks his players merely to jog lightly after the 3-0 drubbing at Schalke 04. The idea is somehow to clear their heads. It does not work. Out of nowhere, a police officer appears.\n\nHis question - whether player Maurice Banach, 24, had shown up for training that day - is answered in the negative. “He has probably died in an accident,” the officer tells the shocked coach.
According to police, Banach had come off the A1 motorway between Wuppertal and Cologne near Remscheid and crashed his dark Opel Omega into a bridge pillar.\n\nThe FC striker was killed instantly. The car burned out completely, leaving rescuers with a scene of horror. Berger was shattered, retreated to the dressing room for 20 minutes to gather himself, and only then informed the team.\n\n“When you receive news like that, you quickly realise the true dimensions of sport,” a grieving Pierre Littbarski later said.
