Franz Beckenbauer, a legendary German football player and coach who helped his nation win a World Cup, passed away on Monday, according to his family. He was eighty-eight.
Germany’s dpa was informed of Beckenbauer’s passing by his family. Then it was declared by the German Football Federation.
“It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” according to the family. “We ask that we be allowed to grieve in peace and be spared any questions.”
Although Beckenbauer had health problems recently, no cause of death was disclosed right away.
Known as the “Kaiser,” Beckenbauer led West Germany, which had lost to England in the 1966 World Cup final, to victory in 1974. When the squad won the tournament in 1990, he was the coach.
“The ‘Kaiser’ was among the greatest players our sport has ever seen,” declared Bernd Neuendorf, head of the German football organisation. “With his lightness, his elegance and his vision, he set standards on the pitch…. Franz Beckenbauer leaves a great legacy for the federation and football as a whole.”
In response to Beckenbauer’s passing, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said in a statement that he “inspired generations of enthusiasm for German football.” He will be missed.
In addition to his accomplishments with the national team, Beckenbauer won the Ballon d’Or twice and was named German Male Footballer of the Year four times. In 427 games, he scored 60 goals for Bayern Munich, helping the team win several Bundesliga titles.
He was also a player for the North American Soccer League’s New York Cosmos.
Before Germany was reunited, in 1990, Beckenbauer led the final German national football team to win a World Cup without the participation of East German players, defeating Argentina 1-0 in a rematch of the last World Cup final.
Along with Mario Zagallo and Didier Deschamps, Beckenbauer was one of three individuals to win the Cup in both player and manager roles. He is also the first and only other guy to win the trophy in both roles as team captain and manager.
After that, Beckenbauer entered the world of club management. In 1990, he accepted a position with Olympique de Marseille, but he quit the team after just one year. In the end, Marseille finished second in the 1990–91 European Cup and won the French championship.
He managed Bayern Munich from 28 December 1993 to 30 June 1994 and again from 29 April 1996 to 30 June of that same year. He won two more trophies during his brief stints as manager: the UEFA Cup in 1996 and the Bundesliga championship in 1994.
When Beckenbauer joined Bayern as club president in 1994, his wise leadership is largely responsible for the team’s success in the years that followed. He became chairman of the advisory board at the start of 2002 when the club decided to convert from an association to a limited business. After he left his position as president of Bayern in 2009, veteran general manager Uli Hoeneß took over.
Beckenbauer joined the German Football Association as vice president in 1998. Beckenbauer led Germany’s successful quest to host the FIFA World Cup in 2006 at the close of the 1990s.In addition to serving as a commentator for the Bild-Zeitung, he oversaw the World Cup organising committee.
Three marriages and five children later, Beckenbauer’s professional football player son Stephan passed away on July 31, 2015, at the age of 46, following a protracted illness. Luca, Stephan’s son, is a professional football player who competes in the Regionalliga Bayern for SV Wacker Burghausen.
After showing up in a large mobile phone company’s advertisement, Beckenbauer made a particular request for his phone number to be 0176 / 666666. Then , “6” sounds like “sechs” in German, so he quickly started getting phone calls from men who assumed it was a phone sex number.
In 2011, Beckenbauer was appointed as Kosovo’s honorary consul. According to President Behgjet Pacolli, Beckenbauer would support Kosovo’s bid to join FIFA and UEFA.
Beckenbauer had two heart surgeries in 2016 and 2017. In 2018, he also had an artificial hip implanted.
Beckenbauer’s family informed Deutsche Presse-Agentur in a statement that he passed away on January 7, 2024, at the age of 78. May his soul Rest In Peace.
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