Franz Beckenbauer
Franz Anton Beckenbauer was a German professional football player, manager, and official. Nicknamed der Kaiser, he is widely regarded as one of the greatest and most influential players of all time. Beckenbauer was a versatile player who started out as a midfielder, but made his name as a centre-back. He is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper.
Twice named European Footballer of the Year, Beckenbauer appeared 103 times for West Germany, playing in three FIFA World Cups and two European Championships. He is one of ten players to have won the FIFA World Cup, the European Cup, and the Ballon d'Or. He is one of three men, along with Brazil's Mário Zagallo and France's Didier Deschamps, to have won the World Cup as a player and as a manager; he lifted the World Cup trophy as captain in 1974, and repeated the feat as a manager in 1990. He was the first captain to lift the World Cup and European Championship at the international level and the European Cup at the club level. He was named in the World Team of the 20th Century in 1998, the FIFA World Cup Dream Team in 2002, the Ballon d'Or Dream Team in 2020, the IFFHS All-time Men's Dream Team in 2021, and in 2004, was listed in the FIFA 100 of the world's greatest living players. In August 2024, the voted him as the third best footballer of the past 100 years after Pelé and Diego Maradona.
At club level with Bayern Munich, Beckenbauer won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1967 and three consecutive European Cups from 1974 to 1976. The latter feat made him the first player to win three European Cups as captain of his club. He became team manager and later president of Bayern Munich. After two spells with the New York Cosmos he was inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame.
Beckenbauer led Germany's successful bid to host the 2006 FIFA World Cup and chaired the organizing committee. He worked as a pundit for Sky Germany, and for 34 years as a columnist for the tabloid Bild, both until 2016. Beginning August 2016, he was investigated for fraud and money laundering in connection with the 2006 World Cup. The investigation was closed without a verdict in 2020 as the statute of limitations expired.
Early life
Franz Anton Beckenbauer was born on 11 September 1945 at a clinic in the Maxvorstadt borough of Munich, the second son of postal-worker Franz Beckenbauer Sr. and his wife Antonie. He was the youngest of two children, his older brother Walter having been born in 1941, and grew up in the working-class district of Giesing. Beckenbauer was raised as a Catholic, and was an altar boy in the Munich-Obergiesing parish. Despite his father's cynicism about the game, Beckenbauer started playing football at the age of nine with the youth team of SC Munich '06 in 1954.Originally a centre-forward, Beckenbauer idolised 1954 FIFA World Cup winner Fritz Walter and supported local side 1860 Munich, then the pre-eminent team in the city, despite their relegation from the top league, the Oberliga Süd, in the 1950s. "It was always my dream to play for them" he would later confirm. That he joined the Bayern Munich youth team in 1959, rather than that of his favourites' 1860 Munich, was the result of a contentious Under-14 youth tournament in nearby Neubiberg. Beckenbauer and his teammates were aware that their SC Munich '06 club lacked the finance to continue running its youth sides, and had determined to join 1860 Munich as a group upon the tournament's conclusion. Fortune decreed that SC Munich and 1860 would meet in the final and a series of niggles during the match eventually resulted in a physical confrontation between Beckenbauer and the opposing centre-half. The ill-feeling this engendered had a strong effect upon Beckenbauer and his teammates, who decided to join Bayern's youth side rather than the team they had recently come to blows with.
In 1963, at the age of 18, Beckenbauer was engulfed by controversy when it was revealed that his girlfriend was pregnant and that he had no intention of marrying her; he was banned from the West Germany national youth team by the DFB and only readmitted after the intervention of the side's coach Dettmar Cramer.
Club career
Beckenbauer made his debut with Bayern in a Bundesliga promotion play-off match on the left wing against FC St. Pauli on 6 June 1964. In his first season in the Regionalliga Süd, 1964–65, the team won the league and was eventually promoted to the Bundesliga.Bayern soon became a force in the new German league, winning the German Cup in 1966–67 and achieving European success in the Cup Winners' Cup in 1967. Beckenbauer became team captain for the 1968–69 season and led his club to their first league title. He began experimenting with the sweeper role around this time, refining the role into a new form and becoming perhaps the greatest exponent of the attacking sweeper game.
During Beckenbauer's tenure at Bayern Munich, the club won three league championships in a row from 1972 to 1974 and also a hat-trick of European Cup wins which earned the club the honour of keeping the trophy permanently.
File:Beckenbauer and maradona 1978.jpg|thumb|left|Beckenbauer with Diego Maradona during a New York Cosmos friendly in Argentina, November 1978
Beginning in 1968, Beckenbauer was called "der Kaiser" by fans and the media. The following anecdote is told to explain the origin: On the occasion of a friendly game of Bayern Munich in Vienna, Austria, Beckenbauer posed for a photo session right beside a bust of the former Austrian emperor Franz Joseph I. The media called him Fußball-Kaiser afterwards, and soon he was just called der Kaiser. According to a report in the German newspaper Welt am Sonntag, this explanation is untrue, though very popular. According to the report, Beckenbauer fouled his opposite number, Reinhard Libuda from Schalke 04, in the cup final on 14 June 1969. Disregarding the fans' hooting, Beckenbauer took the ball into the opposite part of the field, where he balanced the ball in front of the upset fans for half a minute. Libuda was commonly called König von Westfalen, so the press looked for an even more exalted moniker and invented der Kaiser.
In 1977, Beckenbauer accepted a lucrative contract to play in the North American Soccer League with the New York Cosmos, playing alongside Pelé in his debut season. He played with the Cosmos for four seasons up to 1980, and the team won the Soccer Bowl on three occasions.
Beckenbauer retired after a two-year spell with Hamburger SV in Germany with the win of the Bundesliga title that year and one final season with the New York Cosmos in 1983.
International career
Beckenbauer won 103 caps and scored 14 goals for West Germany. He made his debut in a World Cup qualification match against Sweden in Stockholm on 26 September 1965, with West Germany winning 2–1. Beckenbauer scored his first goals for the West Germany national team against the Netherlands on 23 March 1966 at De Kuip, Rotterdam; he scored twice as West Germany won 4–2. He was a member of the World Cup squads that finished runners-up in 1966, third place in 1970, and champions in 1974, while also being named to the tournament all-star team in all three editions. He also won the 1972 European Football Championship and finished as runners-up in the 1976 edition. Beckenbauer became the most capped player for the German national team in 1973, he beat Uwe Seeler's record of 72 matches and was overtaken by Lothar Matthäus in 1993.1966 World Cup
Beckenbauer appeared in his first World Cup in 1966, playing every match. In his first World Cup match, against Switzerland, he scored twice in a 5–0 win. West Germany won their group, and then beat Uruguay 4–0 in quarter-finals, with Beckenbauer scoring the second goal in the 70th minute.In the semi-finals, the Germans faced the USSR; Helmut Haller opened the scoring, while Beckenbauer netted the second goal of the match, his fourth goal of the tournament, thus contributing to a 2–1 win and helping West Germany advance to the Wembley Stadium final against hosts England.
He and Bobby Charlton were instructed by their respective managers to man-mark each other, thus cancelling out each other's play. England went on to win the final and the Jules Rimet Trophy in extra time. Still, Beckenbauer was nominated the Best Young Player of the tournament, while also being awarded the Bronze Boot, together with Ferenc Bene, Geoff Hurst and Valeriy Porkujan.
File:Franz Beckenbauer 22-6-74.png|thumb|upright|Beckenbauer captaining West Germany against East Germany at the 1974 FIFA World Cup
1970 World Cup
West Germany won their first three matches before facing England in the second round in a rematch of the 1966 final. The English were ahead 2–0 in the second half, but a spectacular goal by Beckenbauer in the 69th minute helped the Germans recover and equalise before the end of normal time and win the match in extra time. West Germany advanced to the semi-finals to face Italy, in what would be known as the Game of the Century. He dislocated his shoulder after being fouled, but he was not deterred from continuing in the match, as his side had already used their two permitted substitutions. He stayed on the field carrying his dislocated arm in a sling. The result of this match was 4–3 in favour of the Italians. Germany defeated Uruguay 1–0 for third place.1972 European championship
Beckenbauer became captain of the national side in 1971. In 1972, West Germany won the European Championship, beating the Soviet Union 3–0 in the final.1974 World Cup
The 1974 World Cup was hosted by West Germany and Beckenbauer led his side to victory, including a hard-fought 2–1 win over the hotly favoured Netherlands side featuring Johan Cruyff. Beckenbauer and his fellow defenders man-marked Cruyff so well that the Dutch were never quite able to put their "Total Football" into full use.Beckenbauer became the first captain to lift the new FIFA World Cup Trophy after Brazil had retained the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1970. This also gave West Germany the distinction of being the first European national team to win the European Championship and World Cup consecutively.