by Franz Beckenbauer, who has died aged 78, was widely regarded as the best footballer Germany ever produced. A leading figure in the world game after the second world war, he was a highly successful and innovative player who captained West Germany to win the World Cup in 1974 and subsequently managed his country to two appearances consecutive World Cup championships, of which he won the second. them in 1990 in Rome.
As a club manager he added a Bundesliga title and a Uefa Cup victory to his World Cup victory at international level and as a player he won the World Cup, the European Championship, three European Cups and five Bundesliga Titles in Germany. However, more than his winning prowess, it was the graceful, intelligent nature of his playing that attracted such admiration the world over.
Although he was still a teenager at Bayern Munich, Beckenbauer was the virtual inventor of the so-called “total football”. While watching the Milan Internazionale team on TV, he was impressed by the attack made by their big left back, Giacinto Facchetti. He asked himself why a defender couldn’t attack from a central role and from the flanks, so he became Bayern’s attacker libero. It was a role that became a cornerstone of the overall football practiced by Bayern and their great Dutch rivals, Ajax, in the early 1970s.
Captained by Beckenbauer – a tall, towering figure always ready to break out of defence – Bayern initially played second fiddle to Ajax, but eventually emulated them by winning the European Cup three times in a row, between 1974 and 1976. Before that sequence Beckenbauer He had already captained an excellent team from West Germany to the European Championship title in 1972, and they beat the Soviet Union 3-0 in the final. Two years later he led his country to victory in the 1974 World Cup on German soil, defeating the Netherlands 2-1. He played 103 times for West Germany and appeared in 427 league games for Bayern.
Franz was born to Antonie (nee Huphauf) and Franz Sr, a postal worker in the Munich suburb of Giesing, near the stadium where he would make his name. By the age of eight he was already seen as a technically skilled player, even in a city where footballers and football proliferated. His favorite club was Munich 1860; Bayern Munich was a small beer at the time, where he would later excel; upstart in comparison.
However, Munich 1860’s loss would be Bayern’s gain. In 1958 he was playing for the junior team of a small local club, SC 1906, which closed that year, and was hoping to join 1860. “But in the last game we played for SC 1906 against 1860 ,” he said, “and a half-goal slapped me. That was enough for me. 1860 would never get me. And so Bayern took me into their ranks.” Beckenbauer was, with rare exceptions, a sportsman who declared that he would rather get dirty and leave the field than betray himself.
He made his debut for Bayern Munich in 1964 – when they were in the German second division – and in his first season he helped them achieve promotion to the Bundesliga.
Bayern then went on to impress both domestically and in Europe, winning the German Cup in 1966-67 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1967 (against Rangers). Beckenbauer became team captain for the 1968–69 season and led the club to their first league title that year, winning three consecutive league championships from 1972 to 1974 and a hat-trick of European Cup wins in 1974 -76. Under his inspirational leadership (he was nicknamed the Kaiser for his commanding, almost imperial presence) the Bayern team of that era, which featured greats such as goalkeeper Sepp Maier and forward Gerd Müller, established themselves as one of the biggest ones. club sides always achieved.
Beckenbauer’s first game for the national team, at the age of 21 in 1965, had come even before Bayern’s remarkable rise. He was a star member of the West German side in the 1966 World Cup final, where they were runners-up in the Wembley final to England, and again in the 1970 final in Mexico, where they finished third. Helmut Schön, the tall, noble manager of the West German team who was almost a father to Beckenbauer, refused for many years to let him play the role of libero for his country. When he finally gave up in 1974, West Germany won the tournament and Beckenbauer lifted the trophy as captain.
Beckenbauer looked set for a World Cup quarter-final campaign in Argentina in 1978, but to everyone’s surprise, aged just 31, he retired from football international in 1977 to move to play for the New York Cosmos in North American Soccer. Series.
It was unusual after almost 15 years at the highest level of the game with Bayern, but the contract was lucrative and huge crowds came to see him play with Pelé and other stars at Giants Stadium, New Jersey.
In his four seasons with the Cosmos the team won the national Soccer Bowl three times (1977, 1978 and 1980). “I’ve done everything in my life – championships for Bayern Munich and the World Cup for Germany – but the New York Cosmos was the best time of my life,” he said. “In Munich there were all the German players; at the Cosmos there were 14 nationalities and Pelé.”
He returned to Germany to play for Hamburg (1980-82), where he earned another Bundesliga winners’ medal at the end of the 1981-82 season before returning to the USA for one final campaign with the Cosmos in 1983 and then he quit. . In his domestic league career he made 587 appearances and scored 81 goals.
When Beckenbauer retired he seemed to have no ambitions to go into management, so it was a surprise that in 1984 he agreed to manage West Germany after Jupp Derwall. Never before has a manager from West Germany been appointed who did not come through the comprehensive qualifying program of the German football association, one that involved not only the running of the exams but the running of the minor clubs.
In appointing Beckenbauer, the German authorities were abandoning firm principle in the hope that his prestige and authority would prevail; and they were not disappointed.
The team he inherited was in the doldrums, but at the 1986 World Cup Mexico, duly motivated, reached a final where they were clearly inferior to an Argentina team that went in 2-0 up, only to the Germans fight back. , join them, and then lose 3-2. Four years later, in a shocking final in Rome, Germany had their revenge, beating Argentina 1-0 with a penalty from Andreas Brehme to win the final.
Shortly afterwards Beckenbauer quit his job to become technical director of French club Marseille on a two-year contract worth almost £500,000, bringing with him a German physical trainer.
But once his writing did not pass. The French players were unhappy with the training and Beckenbauer withdrew after four months. He was much happier when he returned to Bayern Munich to serve as manager for two short spells – in 1993-94 and 1996 – during which time he collected two more honours, the Bundesliga title in 1994 and the Cup Uefa in 1996. was president of the club for two years.
In 1998 he became vice-president of the German football association and in the late 90s he led Germany’s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup, later becoming chairman of the organizing committee. He was named honorary president of Bayern Munich in 2009, a position he held until his death.
In 1966 he married his first wife, Brigitte; They divorced in 1990. Later that year he married Sybille Weimer; they divorced in 2004. He is survived by Heidi Burmester, his third wife, and four children, Thomas, Michael, Noel and Francessca. The fifth child, Stephan, who was also a footballer and played for Bayern Munich, died in 2015.
• Franz Anton Beckenbauer, footballer, born 11 September 1945; died 7 January 2024
