Tributes have been paid to legend Franz Beckenbauer, widely regarded as one of the finest footballers of all time, and one of only three men to have won the World Cup as a player and manager, following his death at the age of 78.
According to the German Football Association on Monday, Beckenbauer, who left a unique imprint on German football as a player, captain, and coach, had in the last couple of years been suffering from health challenges.
Beckenbauer is an icon of German football having won 104 caps for West Germany, captaining them to glory at the 1974 World Cup before repeating the feat, as manager, in Italy 16 years later. He also won numerous other honours, including a hat-trick of European Cups with Bayern Munich in the mid-70s, when he also established his reputation as a defender of supreme talents, so much so that he became widely known as Der Kaiser.
His family confirmed the news via a statement to the German press agency DPA. “It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep on Sunday, surrounded by his family,” it said. “We ask that we can be able to mourn in silence and not be disturbed by any questions.”
“Franz Beckenbauer was definitely the biggest German footballer of all time, and above all one of the greatest men who I have known,” said DFB vice president Hans-Joachim Watzke.
Former captain of the German team in the 1970s, Beckenbauer had in the last years been suffering from health problems and lived mostly withdrawn from the public eye in Salzburg, just across from the German border.
Known in football-obsessed Germany as ‘the Kaiser’ meaning ‘the Emperor’, Beckenbauer played a central role in some of the country’s greatest sporting achievements, but his legacy was later tarnished for his involvement in scandals surrounding Germany’s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup.
Born in Giesing, a working-class district of Munich, in September 1945, Beckenbauer grew up as a fan of 1860 Munich but joined the youth setup at the then unfashionable Bayern instead. He was originally a centre-forward and made his debut for the club in 1964, when they were in West Germany’s second tier, as a left winger.
He eventually moved into centre midfield and having helped Bayern achieve promotion to the Bundesliga, was made captain ahead of the 1968-69 season, leading them to the top-flight title for the first time asking. In Munich in 1945, Beckenbauer helped establish Bayern as his country’s strongest club.
Alongside Mario Zagallo, who died aged 92 on Friday, and Didier Deschamps, Beckenbauer is one of only three men to have won the World Cup as both a player and a manager. He captained West Germany to the 1974 World Cup title on home soil when they beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the Munich final, then managed the team that beat Argentina 1-0 in Rome to lift the trophy at Italia 90.
Beckenbauer, a commanding figure on and off the pitch, was named European Footballer of the Year in both 1972 and 1976. He made 424 appearances in the Bundesliga, scoring 44 goals, including in 13 years for Bayern, before joining Hamburg and New York Cosmos, where he finished his playing career in 1983.
He also had stints as manager in club football at both Bayern and Marseille, winning the French league title in 1991 and the Bundesliga in 1994. In 1996, he stopped coaching and his role as President of Bayern led to a place on the Executive Committee of football’s governing body FIFA.
Off the field, Bayern Munich’s former President led Germany’s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup, a successful tournament that is still nostalgically referred to in Germany as “das Sommermaerchen” — ‘The summer fairytale’.
However, the story turned sour in October 2015 when Spiegel broke a cash-for-votes scandal story. The magazine alleged that, in 2000, the German Football Association (DFB) had bought the votes of four Asian members of FIFA’s 24-strong executive committee to secure the hosting of the 2006 World Cup finals. Beckenbauer had maintained his innocence.
Beckenbauer had heart surgery in 2016 and again in 2017 when worrying news about his ill health began to emerge. At the beginning of January 2023, the football icon renounced his presence at the funeral of Pele. A few months later in August, he had missed the traditional annual gathering of Germany’s 1990 world champions.
On each of these occasions, health had been cited as a reason. The last time he appeared at Bayern Munich’s Allianz Arena was in August 2022, when he attended a match of Bayern Munich against Borussia Moenchengladbach.
In his tribute to the world’s football legend, Germany’s current head coach, Julian Nagelsmann said; “Franz Beckenbauer was able to float on the lawn, as a footballer and later also as a coach he was sublime, he stood above things”, adding; “An aura surrounded him until the end, which even the health problems and strokes of fate that he had to cope with could not shake it. I am grateful and proud that I was able to get to know him and will remember him fondly.” – With agencies’ reports
