Timo Konietzka, a former Germany international and the first footballer to score a goal in the country's Bundesliga, died Monday by assisted suicide, his wife announced in the German media.
The 73-year-old Konietzka had been suffering in recent years from cancer.
"Timo decided it was time to die," his wife Claudia Konietzka told German daily Bild Tuesday.
Konietzka scored the first ever goal in the Bundesliga on August 24 1963 when he opened his account for Borussia Dortmund in the first minute of a match against Werder Bremen, which Dortmund finally lost.
He went on to win two league titles, with Borussia and Munich 1860, and was capped eight times by Germany before retiring from football in 1971.
After becoming a coach he led FC Zurich to four league titles in his adopted home of Switzerland, where he lived for several decades.
Konietzka also steered the club to the semi-finals of the European Cup in 1977, when the Swiss were eliminated over two legs by eventual champions Liverpool.
Source: AFP
