He won European championship and World Cup for West Germany
\nLONDON
\nLegend Franz Beckenbauer, who left a unique imprint on German football as player, captain and coach, has died at the age of 78, the German football association said Monday.
\n\u201cFranz Beckenbauer was definitely the biggest German footballer of all time, and above all one of the greatest men who I have known,\u201d said DFB vice president Hans-Joachim Watzke.
\nBeckenbauer, one of only three men to win the World Cup as player and as a coach, passed away on Sunday, the DFB said.
\nTributes poured in for the football icon, with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and former German captain Lothar Matthaeus alike saying \u201cwe will miss him\u201d.
\nUEFA hailed Beckenbauer as \u201cone of European football\u2019s greatest sons\u201d who \u201cshaped German football like no other\u201d, while the English Premier League described him as the \u201cmost beautiful of footballers who won it all with grace and charm\u201d.
\nFIFA President Gianni Infantino on Instagram called Beckenbauer \u201ca true legend\u201d, saying \u201cwe\u2019ll never forget you dear Franz, thanks for everything.\u201d
\nOn his 75th birthday, Beckenbauer told German tabloid Bild he prayed regularly.
\n\u201cThey are prayers of thanks,\u201d the frequent Bild columnist said \u201cthanks for the beautiful life I have been able to lead.\u201d
\nFormer captain of the German team in the 1970s, Beckenbauer had health problems in his later years and lived mostly withdrawn from the public eye in Salzburg in Austria, just across the border with Germany.
\nKnown in football-mad Germany as \u201cthe Kaiser\u201d meaning \u201cthe Emperor\u201d, Beckenbauer played a central role in some of the country\u2019s greatest sporting achievements, but his legacy was later tarnished by his involvement in scandals surrounding Germany\u2019s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup.
\nBorn in Munich in 1945, Beckenbauer helped establish Bayern as his country\u2019s strongest club.
\nAlongside Brazilian Mario Zagallo — who died aged 92 on Friday — and France\u2019s Didier Deschamps, Beckenbauer is one of only three men to have won the World Cup as both a player and a manager.
\nHe 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.
\nBeckenbauer, a commanding figure on and off the pitch, was named European footballer of the year in both 1972 and 1976.
\nHe 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.
\nBeckenbauer had stints as manager in club football at both Bayern and Marseille, winning the French league title in 1991 and the Bundesliga in 1994.
\nIn 1996, he stopped coaching and his role as president of Bayern led to a place on the Executive Committee with football\u2019s governing body FIFA.
\nOff the field, Beckenbauer led Germany\u2019s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup, a successful tournament that is still nostalgically referred to in Germany as \u201cdas Sommermaerchen\u201d — \u2018The summer fairytale\u2019.
\nHowever, the story turned sour in October 2015 when Spiegel broke a cash-for-votes scandal story.
\nThe magazine alleged that, in 2000, the German Football Association (DFB) had bought the votes of four Asian members of FIFA\u2019s 24-strong executive committee to secure the hosting of the 2006 World Cup finals. Beckenbauer had maintained his innocence.
\nBeckenbauer had heart surgery in 2016 and again in 2017, when worrying news about his ill health began to emerge.
\nAt the beginning of January 2023, the football icon was absent from Pele\u2019s funeral. A few months later, in August, he missed the traditional annual gathering of Germany\u2019s 1990 world champions.
\nOn each occasion, his health was cited as a reason.
\nThe last time he appeared at Bayern Munich\u2019s Allianz Arena was in August 2022, when he attended a match against Borussia Moenchengladbach.
\nWolfgang Overath, who lifted the World Cup with Beckenbauer in 1974, said it was \u201cunimaginable that (Beckenbauer) is no longer around.
\n\u201cHe towered over everyone… and yet he was so down to earth,\u201d said Overath, recalling that Beckenbauer had phoned him just three months ago for his birthday \u201cwith all the strength he still had then\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
He won European championship and World Cup for West Germany LONDON Legend Franz Beckenbauer, who left a unique imprint on German football as player, captain and coach, has died at the age of 78, the German football association said Monday. \u201cFranz Beckenbauer was definitely the biggest German footballer of all time, and above all one […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":379828,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-379807","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"yoast_head":"\n