 "'Der Kaiser' no more: German football icon Franz Beckenbauer passes away aged 78")
Football icon and FIFA World Cup-winner Franz Beckenbauer has died at the age of 78, the German football federation confirmed on Monday. Beckenbauer, widely considered one of the greatest footballers of all time, is one of only a handful of individuals to have won the FIFA World Cup both as a player and as a coach. He helped West Germany win their second world title as a player in 1974 and as a manager in 1990. Brazilian legend Mario Zagello, who died at the age of 92 on Friday, and France’s Didier Deschamps are the only other individuals to have achieved the feat. Beckenbauer’s family confirmed the football icon had “passed away peacefully in his sleep” on Sunday, a day before the news of his death was made public. “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. We ask that we can be able to mourn in silence and not be disturbed by any questions,” read a statement from his family published on German news agency DPA. Beckenbauer had represented West Germany a total of 104 times in a career spanning 12 years between 1965 and 1977. He would then coach the same side for six years between 1984 and 1990. “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.
The Bundesliga family is devastated to learn of the death of Franz Beckenbauer. A true icon, then, now, and always. RIP, Der Kaiser. 👑🕊 pic.twitter.com/zE2CcggVNd
— Bundesliga English (@Bundesliga_EN) January 8, 2024
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of the German team in the 1970s, Beckenbauer had in the last years been suffering from health problems and lived mostly withdrawn from the public eye in Salzburg, just across from the German border.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 ‘Der 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. Commanding figure Born in Munich in 1945, Beckenbauer helped establish Bayern as his country’s strongest club. 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.
It fills me with deep sadness to hear about the passing of Franz Beckenbauer, a true icon of the game. It was a privilege to share one of my proudest moments with him when he presented my 100th cap for Scotland. My thoughts are with him and his family at this time. RIP Der Kaiser pic.twitter.com/32p8T2rEkI
— Sir Kenny Dalglish (@kennethdalglish) January 8, 2024
He made 424 appearances in the Bundesliga, scoring 44 goals, including in a 13-year spell for Bayern, before joining Hamburg and New York Cosmos, where he finished his playing career in 1983. Beckenbauer 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 with football’s governing body FIFA. Off the field, Beckenbauer 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. At 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. With inputs from AFP
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