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Franz Anton Beckenbauer (born September 11, 1945) is a German football coach, manager, and former player, nicknamed der Kaiser ("the emperor") because of his elegant style, his leadership qualities, his first name "Franz" (reminiscent of the Austrian emperors), and his dominance on the football pitch. Beckenbauer was one of the world's most famous defenders. He was a versatile player, who adapted to different roles on the pitch, and he is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper or libero (SW).Franz Beckenbauer bio - ifhof.com - International Football Hall of Fame.

Twice selected the European Footballer of the Year, he appeared 103 times for the West Germany national team and played in three World Cups. He lifted the World Cup trophy as captain in 1974, and repeated the feat as a manager in 1990. With the club Bayern Munich, he won three consecutive European Cups from 1974 to 1976, and went on to become coach and president of the institution.

Today, Beckenbauer remains an influential figure in both German and international football. He led Germany's successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup and chaired the organizing committee.

Early life

Franz Beckenbauer was born in Munich as the second son of Antonie Beckenbauer and started his playing football at the age of 9 with the youth team of SC Munich '06 in 1954.

He joined the Bayern Munich youth team in 1959 at the age of fourteen.

Club career

He made his debut with Bayern in the Regionalliga Süd (Regional League South) on the left wing against FC St. Pauli on 6th June 1964. In only his first season in the regional league, 1964/65, the team won promotion 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 ("libero") 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 an astonishing hat-trick of European Cup wins (1974-76) which earned the club the honour of keeping the trophy permanently.

In 1977 Beckenbauer accepted a lucrative contract to play in the North American Soccer League with the New York Cosmos. He played with the Cosmos for four seasons up to 1980, and the team won the Soccer Bowl on three occasions (77, 78, 80).

Beckenbauer retired after a two-year spell with Hamburger SV in Germany (1980-82) with the win of the Bundesliga title that year and one final season with the New York Cosmos in 1983. In his career in domestic leagues, he made 424 appearances and scored 44 goals.

National team

Beckenbauer won 103 caps and scored 14 goals for West Germany. He was a member of the World Cup squads that finished runners-up in 1966, third place in 1970, and champions in 1974. Beckenbauer's first game for the national team came on September 26, 1965.

1966 World Cup

Beckenbauer appeared in his first World Cup in 1966, playing every match. In his first ever World Cup match, against Switzerland, he scored twice on a 5-0 win. West Germany won its group, and then beat Uruguay 4-0 in quarterfinals, with Beckenbauer scoring the second goal at the 70th minute. In semifinals, the Germans faced the Soviet Union. Helmut Haller opened the score, and then Beckenbauer scored the 2-0, his fourth goal of the tournament. The Soviets scored a late goal but were unable to equalize, and West Germany advanced to the final against hosts England. The English won the match and the Jules Rimet Trophy on extra time. The Germans fell short of the title, but Beckenbauer had a notable tournament, finishing tied for third on the list of top scorers – from a non-attacking position.

1970 World Cup

West Germany won its first three matches before facing England in second round on 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 equalize before the end of regulation, and win the match on extra time. West Germany advanced to the semi-finals to face Italy, in what would be known as the Game of the Century. Despite getting his clavicle fractured after being fouled, he was not deterred from continuing the match, as his side had already used up their maximum two substitutions. He remarkably stayed on the field carrying his dislocated arm in a sling. The result of this match was 4-3 (after extra time) in favour of the Italians. Germany defeated Uruguay 1-0 for third place.

1974 World Cup

The 1974 World Cup was hosted by West Germany and Beckenbauer led his side to victory, including a 2-1 win over the hotly favoured Netherlands side featuring Johan Cruyff. Beckenbauer became the first captain to lift the brand 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 only national team at the time to hold both the Euro and World Cup titles simultaneously; France also accomplished this feat in 2000.

European Championships

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. In 1976, West Germany lost the European Championship in the final.

Managerial career

On his return to Germany, Beckenbauer was appointed manager of the West Germany national team to replace Jupp Derwall. He took the team all the way to the final of the 1986 World Cup, where they lost to Argentina.

In 1990, before the German reunification, Beckenbauer managed the last West Germany team in a World Cup, winning the final 1-0, against Argentina, in a rematch of the previous World Cup final. Beckenbauer is one of two men (with Mario Zagallo) to have won the Cup as player and as coach, and he is the only man to have won the title as team captain as well as coach.

Beckenbauer then moved into club management, and accepted a job with Olympique Marseille in 1990 but left them the following year.

From 28 December 1993 until 30 June 1994, and then from 29 April 1996 until 30 June of the same year, he coached Bayern Munich. His brief spells in charge saw him collect two further honours - the Bundesliga title in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996.

In 1994 he had taken on the role of club president at Bayern, and much of the Munich giants' success in the following years has been credited to his astute management. Following the club's decision to change from an association to a limited company, he has been chairman of the advisory board since the beginning of 2002.

In 1998 he became vice-president of the DFB. At the end of the 1990s, Beckenbauer headed the successful bid by Germany to organize the FIFA World Cup 2006. He chaired the organizational committee for the World Cup and was a commentator for the Bild-Zeitung.

Trivia

Nickname Der Kaiser

Since 1968 Beckenbauer is called Kaiser by the fans and the media. Mostly the following anecdote is told (also by Beckenbauer himself) to explain the origin: On the occasion of a friendly game of Bayern Munich in Vienna, Beckenbauer posed for a photo session right beside a bust of the former Austrian emperor Francis II. The media called him Fußball-Kaiser (football-emperor) afterwards, and soon he was called just Kaiser.

According to a report Patrick Krull: Des Kaisers falscher Schluß In: Welt am Sonntag, September 11th, 2005 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 finale on the 14th of June 1969. Disregarding the fans of Schalke hooting, Beckenbauer took the ball into the opposite part of the field, where he balanced the ball in front of the upset fans of Schalke for half a minute. Libuda was commonly called König von Westfalen (king of Westphalia), so the press looked for an even more exalted moniker and invented the Kaiser.

Other trivia notes

• Beckenbauer's digital image was reproduced for Adidas's [[José + 10|José+10]] football advertisement. The ad shows a young-looking Beckenbauer from the 1970s playing with contemporary players like Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Kaká, Jermaine Defoe, Oliver Kahn, Michael Ballack, Juan Román Riquelme, Arjen Robben, Lukas Podolski, Raul Gonzalez, Bastian Schweinsteiger and Djibril Cissé. The ad shows Beckenbauer wearing the West German 1974 World Cup jersey which he wore number 5. This is the same jersey he is wearing when he was the first player to hoist the FIFA World Cup Trophy. The ad also digitally reproduces the image of French great Michel Platini.

• While playing with the youth team of SC Munich 1906 Beckenbauer was a supporter of the Bayern Munich city rival 1860 Munich and intended to join the club in 1958. But after a game with his youth team a player of 1860 Munich slapped him in his face. Upset about this he changed his plans and instead of joining the "Blues", which had been the more popular team at this time in Munich, Beckenbauer joined the "Reds".

Honours

CLUB

Bayern Munich

• Bundesliga - 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974
• DFB Cup (German Cup) - 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971
• European Champions Cup - 1974, 1975, 1976
• UEFA Cup Winners' Cup - 1967
• Intercontinental Cup - 1976

Hamburger SV

• Bundesliga - 1982

New York Cosmos

• NASL Championship - 1977, 1978, 1980

INTERNATIONAL

• FIFA World Cup - 1974
• EURO 72 - 1972

MANAGERIAL

• FIFA World Cup - 1990
• Bundesliga - 1994
• UEFA Cup - 1996

Club career statistics

References

External links

• Franz Beckenbauer Foundation (German)
• Facts on Beckenbauer (German)
• Portrait of Franz Beckenbauer (English)
• Unofficial career stats

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