Having grown up in East Germany and been capped five times for his country by East Germany, Uwe Rösler had mixed feelings when the Berlin Wall came down in 1989.

On the one hand, he anticipated “a lot of possibilities,” but he calculated, on the other, that his international career was now over: West Germany were about to win the 1990 World Cup and Uwe saw no prospect of competing, as he explained in a 2011 interview, “with the likes of Voller, Klinsman and Bierhof.” After adjusting for a while to the re-unified Germany, Uwe made it to England in 1994, when Brian Horton brought him to Premiership Manchester City. He soon had to adjust again, though – to the expectations of a new manager, Alan Ball, and to the disappointment of relegation. But he outlasted Ball and had scored 50 League goals in 152 appearances by the time City were relegated again in 1998.

He now returned to Germany, but when his club, Tennis Borussia Berlin, ran into financial difficulties, Glenn Hoddle brought Uwe back, on a free transfer, to Premier League football at Southampton. A committed and strong striker on his day, Uwe’s days with the Saints were limited by two developments: James Beattie’s rich vein of form; and a groin injury that required surgery. His Southampton career climaxed in his coming on as a substitute in Gordon Strachan’s first game in charge. Whereupon, Uwe returned to Germany.

He finished playing in Norway, after he had been diagnosed with cancer in 2003. But following surgery, he was able to coach and manage in Norway before coming back again, in 2011, to England, where he had had his “happiest time” as a player. His League One Brentford teetered on the edge of automatic promotion in the 2012-13 run-in. Their dramatic last-minute defeat, in the last game of the season, consigned them to the play-offs, however, and they lost to Yeovil at Wembley. Since Brentford he had positions with three other English club but his tenure of office was less than a year with each of them.