Franz Beckenbauer at the 1974 World Cup in West Germany. BRIDGEMAN IMAGES
Legendary figure of world football for more than half a century as a player, coach and manager, Franz Beckenbauer died on Sunday at the age of 78, the German Federation (DFB) announced on Monday January 8, leaving Germany and Bavaria orphans of their “Kaiser”.
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“Franz Beckenbauer was definitely the greatest German footballer of all time, and above all a great man, who I got to know”said Hans-Joachim Watzke, vice-president of the DFB, in a press release. The boss of FIFA, Gianni Infantino, welcomed the “legend of German and world football” who was Franz Beckenbauer. The “Kaiser”, world champion as a player in 1974 and as a coach in 1990, “always remained modest” despite “exploits and triumphs that are engraved in history”praised the Italian-Swiss leader on his Instagram account. “A truly wonderful person, a friend of football, a champion and a true legend. Franz will never be forgotten”he concluded.
“The world of Bayern Munich is no longer what it was, suddenly darker, calmer, poorer”, reacted the Bavarian club to the announcement of his death. Bayern will have been the common thread of his career. More than five decades in the world of football during which he lived three lives, a first as a player in the 1960s and 1970s, a second as a coach in the second half of the 1980s, and a last as a manager in the 1980s. 1990 and 2000, crowned with success and concluded on suspicion of corruption. After his playing and coaching career, Beckenbauer launched his management career at Bayern, forming a management trio with Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.
“I am deeply touched. Franz Beckenbauer rewrote German football, and left his lasting mark. He was my captain at Bayern, my coach with the Mannschaft, our president of Bayern and in all these roles he was not only successful, he was unique.said Rummenigge.
“Franz Beckenbauer is the greatest personality Bayern has ever known. As a player, coach, president and as a man: unforgettable”estimated the honorary president of Bayern, Uli Hoeness, quoted in the club press release.
Forced to decline invitations
For several years, Beckenbauer had retired to Salzburg, an Austrian city neighboring his native Bavaria. Tired of illness, he had gradually reduced his public appearances.
For his 75th birthday at the end of summer 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, Beckenbauer spoke of death, and his own disappearance, in a documentary on German public television ARD.
“The question is: ‘When does that moment arrive when we disappear into another sphere?’ Or somewhere else and we don’t know exactly where. The world is big enough, there are enough hiding places where you can land. But this uncertainty concerns me. »
At the beginning of January 2023, the “Kaiser” had to give up going to Brazil for the funeral of “King” Pelé, with whom he had played a season in the jersey of the New York Cosmos. In August of the same year, he missed the traditional annual gathering of the 1990 German world champions.
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Each time, it was for health reasons that he was forced to decline the invitations. Operated on several occasions for coronary bypass operations, he lost sight in his right eye a few months ago.
The last time he appeared at the Allianz Arena to watch “his” Bayern Munich play was at the end of August 2022 for a championship match against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
A few weeks earlier, he had made a detour to northern Bavaria in Herzogenaurach, to support the German players in full preparation for Euro 2022.
A post-war child – he was born in September 1945 – in the working-class district of Giesing in southern Munich, Beckenbauer learned to play football at local club SC 1906 Munich before moving to Bayern, after refusing to rival TSV Munich 1860.
Image once damaged
Winner of the European Cup of Champion Clubs in 1974, 1975, and 1976 with Bayern, European champion in 1972 and the world in 1974 with the Mannschaft, Golden Ball in 1972 and 1976 (a rarity for a defender ), Beckenbauer has won every trophy possible for a player.
But he also built his legend on setbacks, like this semi-final of the 1970 World Cup lost against Italy, which remained as the “match of the century”, which he ended up with his arm in a sling after breaking his right collarbone. .
On the coaching bench, he also experienced the glory of a world champion title in 1990, and more difficult moments such as his short-lived stint at Bernard Tapie’s Olympique de Marseille.
His management career began very logically at Bayern, occupying one of the three management seats for almost two decades. The “fairy tale” of the summer of 2006 with the World Cup, which he organized for Germany, will be his high point, the big man of the global event, he rubs shoulders with world leaders.
But around ten years later, his image would be tarnished for a time by suspicions of corruption concerning obtaining the organization, accusations that he always denied.
Columnist for thirty-four years in the popular daily Bild until 2016, star of TV sets and advertising spots during and after his career, “Kaiser” Franz was a guest in the daily lives of Germans for half a century and left a gaping void.