Frank Mill: Football world champion from 1990 died

Former soccer player Frank Mill is dead. He died on Tuesday at the age of 67. His former club Rot-Weiss Essen confirmed a report by the “Bild” newspaper, citing Mills family. Mill suffered a heart attack during a stay in Milan at the end of May 2025, now he has died of the episodes. A good one and a half years after the death of final scorer Andreas Brehme died the second player from the German World Champion squad from 1990.

Mill was a player with corners and edges-a Ruhrpott original that not only played football, but also lived. The Mill, born in Essen in 1958 at the age of six at BV Eintracht in 1916, began his footballer career in Altenessen in Altenessen, before switching to Rot-Weiss Essen as a 14-year-old.

On Hafenstraße he developed into a striker and scored 41 goals in 1980/81 in the 2nd division. This was followed by stations at Borussia Mönchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund and Fortuna Düsseldorf. In total, the attacker scored 123 goals in 387 Bundesliga games.

Essen’s board member Alexander Rang said: “Frank was not only one of the biggest footballers who have ever produced Rot-Weiss Essen-he was also a fine person: down-to-earth, authentic and full of positive energy.” Mill “not only shaped our club and the Ruhr area with its kind, but was also an ambassador of football all over Germany”.

However, his spectacular post shot remains unforgettable in the opening game of the Bundesliga season 1986/87 for Dortmund against FC Bayern Munich. After a solo through the entire Munich defense and past goalkeeper Jean-Marie Pfaff, Mill was alone in front of the empty goal-and only hit the post in his first game in the BVB jersey.

The scene was one of the most spectacular misses in Bundesliga history in the annals. The press then wrote of the “most famous post hit in the post -war period”. Mill later said: “I saw a film about the biggest breakdowns in sports during a vacation in Los Angeles on US TV. My ‘goal’ was also there.”

Mill, who was also happy to be called “Franky” by fans, was also known for playing in the 1980s without a shin-protector, which brought him the nickname “hanging sock”. But it almost didn’t get that far because before Mill became a professional, he started an apprenticeship as a florist in his mother’s business.

But Mill became a successful football player. With his carefree and slit -earedness, he brought the opposing defenders to despair. The former Dortmund striker and today’s BVB stadium spokesman Norbert Dickel summarized the footballer Mill once in one sentence: “The Mill is washed with all wasters.”

It was also successful internationally: he brought it to 17 A-international matches for Germany, was part of the Olympic squad in 1984 (Los Angeles) and 1988 (Seoul), where he won bronze with the German team and was remembered as a record player and record goal scorer in the Olympic team. In 1990 he was part of the world champion squad in Italy, even if he was not used in any game.

In his autobiography “Frank Mill – the slot ear of German football” published in 2017, Mill spoke openly about his career, personal setbacks – and also admitted that he had once reached a forbidden doping tablet before a Bundesliga game.

After the end of the career, he briefly tried to be a manager at Fortuna Düsseldorf, but his commitment ended after only one year. Later Mill worked as an entrepreneur, among other things, had a container service in Essen. A heart project was his “Frank Mill Mill Football School”, with which he campaigned for children, young people and integration for years. Until the end, he was regularly on the pitch for the BVB tradition team.

Privately, Mill was characterized by openness and down -to -earthness. He lived in Essen and – since his relationship with a Sicilian – also often on Sicily. His former wife Beate, from whom he lived for a long time, died in 2006. Two children emerged from the marriage.

Note: This article has been updated.