Franz Beckenbauer: The “Emperor” of German football is dead

Recently, the bad news about Franz Beckenbauer’s health had increased, and one could sense what could come. His family and friends had been worried about him for years. Like in the summer of 2019, when Beckenbauer made one of his rare public appearances.

He came to Bad Griesbach in Bavaria for the opening of the Kaiser Cup, a golf tournament to benefit his foundation. Although Beckenbauer reported another health setback after his heart operations in 2016 and 2017 and a hip operation in 2018, he managed to present it with his typical charm. »I’ve had health problems for a long time. That is known. The last time I went to a special clinic was because circulatory problems in the eye were diagnosed,” said Beckenbauer, “and that turned out to be an eye infarction. Now I can see little or nothing in my right eye.” With his postscript, he still made the dismayed listeners smile. “So don’t be mad at me if I don’t see one of you and run over him,” Beckenbauer joked with a smile.

It was typical Franz, a statement of lightness on a serious matter. It is for this trait that Beckenbauer will be remembered above all else. Despite the affair surrounding the awarding of the 2006 Football World Cup to Germany, above all as an emperor of nonchalance, as a gifted kicker for FC Bayern Munich, as a world champion, both as a player (1974) and as a team boss without a coaching license (1990) and as an overall influencer Figure of German football. And as a charming conversation partner who, despite some mistakes, was usually sympathetic.

It all started at Zugspitzstrasse 6 in the former working-class district of Munich, Giesing, as the second son of postal secretary Franz Beckenbauer Sr. and his wife Antonie. The Beckenbauers had three rooms on the fourth floor, and the toilet was in the hallway. As a five-year-old, Beckenbauer played in the “Bowazu” street team with the other boys from St. Bonifatiusstrasse, Watzmannstrasse and Zugspitzstrasse, initially with rags or an inflated pig’s bladder. Later in the SC 1906 Munich jersey in the “Stadion Rote Erde”, as the square in front of his front door was previously called. In the 06 jersey he also experienced the moment that would have a significant impact on his career. After a slap in the face from the then 1860 player Gerhard König, the Kaiser refrained from moving to the “Lions” and joined FC Bayern in 1959.

There he introduced the position of libero with universally admired elegance and as a player became, among other things, German champions four times, European champions three times, as well as European champions in 1972 and world champions in 1974 with the national team. He later played for Cosmos New York and Hamburger SV. But he is primarily associated with FC Bayern, where he later became president and honorary president after stepping in as coach twice in 1994 and 1996 and being successful in that, as in almost everything he touched.

This was also the case as team manager of the German national team from 1984, before he resigned after his greatest coaching success after the 1990 World Cup. The way Beckenbauer walked alone and with his hands in his pockets across the lawn of the Olympic Stadium in Rome on July 8th after winning the title with a 1-0 win in the final against Argentina, these images are firmly anchored in the nation’s memory. After the big goal was achieved with Andreas Brehme’s penalty goal, “I just wanted to be alone,” Beckenbauer later said, “you look at the grass and in a few minutes your whole life will fly past you. I thought about my mother, my family, about winning the World Cup as a player in Munich in 1974 and about home. Until suddenly an arm came, grabbed me and tore me out of my thoughts.” His mistake that the German team would not be able to be defeated “for years to come” because of German unity? Almost forgotten.

Beckenbauer always seemed like the lucky child of German football, even in his role as a media figure and expert. This also applied to his position as head of organization for the 2006 World Cup in Germany. In order to bring the tournament to Germany, he undertook a highly acclaimed promotional tour around the globe. Beckenbauer was the representative, the world-famous “emperor” who simply had to be there everywhere. Also during the so-called summer fairy tale, when he flew from one game to the next in a helicopter and became the most famous and privileged groundhopper in the nation. During the tournament he attended 48 of 64 games. Just in Gelsenkirchen, then in Berlin, or was it Stuttgart? Beckenbauer felt like he was everywhere at once, always in a great mood, relaxed, and he took the tightly scheduled agenda with his nonchalant smile. They enjoyed “fool’s freedom in German airspace,” his helicopter pilot at the time, Hans Ostler, once told the magazine “11 Freunde,” and “we were even more important than the Chancellor’s plane.”

When Beckenbauer celebrated his 70th birthday on September 11, 2015, the prettiest garlands were once again woven for him. Many media outlets celebrated him as a perceived monarch. The life of the “Emperor” was depicted in the most beautiful colors. His long-time companion, former DFB President Wolfgang Niersbach, described him as a “player by God’s grace” and a “world star without airs and graces.” He maintained “this lightness of touch in other positions.” Achieving more than Beckenbauer “isn’t possible,” said Niersbach.

About the dark sides of the shining figure that were already known back then? Not a word. Shortly before, Beckenbauer had suffered a serious personal blow when his son Stephan died at the age of 46. In the wake of the affair surrounding the awarding of the so-called World Cup summer fairy tale, Beckenbauer’s image among his friends had not changed. But with many others who were always well-disposed towards him and looked after the Franzeleien for a long time, for whom he always stood. Beckenbauer once said in the preparations for the 2006 World Cup – 30 years after the 1972 Olympic attack – that a terrorist would be found who would blow up the Munich Olympic Stadium so that the new arena could be built.

Later he did not see a single slave in Qatar. And when, before the 2014 World Cup, he initially refused to answer the ethics questions about allegations of corruption surrounding the 2018 World Cup awards in Russia and 2022 in Qatar due to his alleged lack of knowledge of English, large parts of the audience did not hold that against him in the long term. In his wife Heidi’s eulogy on his 70th birthday it was said about the game evenings together: »When it comes to (…) losing, he acts as if he doesn’t know the rules of the game. He wants to roll the dice a second time or “accidentally” – as he says – pushes the pieces apart. Typical Franz. (…) But that’s how we love him.«

Beckenbauer’s chutzpah was also a trademark. “Yes, my, Franz, that’s just how he is,” they often said. In fact, part of his winning personality was that he often managed to approach his football crowd with disarming ferocity. »The crime isn’t that big. “The good Lord is happy about every child,” he once said after fathering a child at an FC Bayern Christmas party. Or also: »I once had a family tree made: The Beckenbauers’ roots lie in Franconia. They were funny families, all illegitimate children. We stuck with it.” The audience was amused, but for a long time they didn’t question Beckenbauer.

Not even if he said A on one topic and the opposite Z on the next day. The frippery, as Spiegel called him early on, was allowed to do that. Also because he was always perceived as a friendly world star who met the Pope on an equal footing the autograph hunter. But in the wake of the affair surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup, the audience suspected that the image of Beckenbauer, the “emperor” seemingly kissed by life, was probably not entirely accurate. However, the alleged bribes, which were at least obvious due to dubious payments, could never be clearly proven.

Beckenbauer thought about his death early on. »I actually believe in reincarnation. Maybe I was there before, as a plant or something. I don’t know it. I have not yet allowed myself to be repatriated. But maybe I would like that someday,” he said in 1994. Franz Anton Beckenbauer died on Sunday at the age of 78. For many, he will be remembered above all as the “Emperor of Lightness”.

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