Franz Beckenbauer

Franz Beckenbauer (born September 11, 1945) is a famous German football player, coach and manager, nicknamed der Kaiser ("the emperor") because of his elegant style, his leadership qualities, his first name "Franz" (reminiscent of the Austrian emperors), and his domination on the football pitch. He wore the number 5 most frequently, as well as the number 6 for the Cosmos. Beckenbauer was arguably one of the world's most famous defenders. Beckenbauer is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper or libero.

He is the only player to have won the FIFA World Cup and the European Championships both as a captain and a coach (Brazil's former striker Zagallo has also coached his country to the cup, but he never captained his side). . More recently, he was chairman of Germany's successful bid to organize the 2006 World Cup.

He is married to Heidi Burmester.

Playing career

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

He joined the Bayern Munich youth team in 1958 at the age of fourteen. 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.

Beckenbauer's first game for the national side came on September 26, 1965 and he played in his first World Cup in 1966.

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 his second World Cup, Germany advanced to the semi-finals of the 1970 World Cup to face off against Italy in what would be known as the Game of the Century. Despite being injured, that did not deter him from partcipating in the match, as his side had already used up their maximum three substitutions, and he took 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.

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. 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 to hold both the Euro and World Cup titles simultaneously; it would not be until 2000 that another team would do accomplish such a feat.

At Bayern Munich Beckenbauer was equally successful, the club won three league championships in a row (1972-74) and also an astonishing hat-trick of European Cup wins (1974-76).

In 1976 West Germany lost the European Championship in the final and 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) and one final season with the New York Cosmos in 1983.

He had 103 caps and had scored 14 goals in the international arena. In the domestic league he had made 424 appearances and scored 44 goals.

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 the FC Bayern München in Vienna Beckerbauer 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 a even higher title and invented the Kaiser.

Managerial career

On his return to Germany he was appointed manager of the Germany to replace the lacklustre Jupp Derwall and he took the team all the way to the final of the World Cup 1986 where they lost to Argentina.

In 1990 Beckenbauer managed the last West German team in a World Cup before the reunification, winning the final with a 1-0 victory over Argentina. 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 and 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. Beckenbauer is considered one of the best players of all time. In 2004 he was voted the second best European player in the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll, just behind Zinedine Zidane.

More recently, Beckenbauer has headed the successful bid by Germany to organize the World Cup in 2006. He is now chairman of the organization committee for the World Cup and commentator for the Bild-Zeitung. He intends to visit 48 of the 64 games, flying from stadium to stadium in a helicopter.

Trivia

Beckenbauer's digital image was reproduced for Adidas's José+10 football advertisement. The ad shows a young-looking Beckenbauer from the 1970s playing with contemporary greats 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, 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
German Cup - 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971
European Champions Cup - 1974, 1975, 1976
European Cup Winners Cup - 1967
Intercontinental Cup - 1976

Hamburger SV

Bundesliga - 1982

New York Cosmos

US Championship - 1977, 1978, 1980

INTERNATIONAL

FIFA World Cup - 1974
European Championship - 1972

MANAGERIAL

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

Club career stats

**All-Time Club Performance**
Club	Season	Bundesliga		DFB Cup		European Competition		Total
Club	Season	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals	App	Goals
Bayern Munich	1965-66	33	4			0	0
	1966-67	33	0			9	0
	1967-68	28	4			7	1
	1968-69	33	2			0	0
	1969-70	34	6			2	0
	1970-71	33	3			8	1
	1971-72	34	6			7	0
	1972-73	34	4			6	1
	1973-74	33	1			10	1
	1974-75	34	5			7	1
	1975-76	33	3			9	0
Total		362	38			65	5
New York Cosmos	1977	21	5	-	-	-	-	21	5
	1978	33	10	-	-	-	-	33	10
	1979	18	1	-	-	-	-	18	1
	1980	33	5	-	-	-	-	33	5
Total		105	21	-	-	-	-
Hamburg	1980-81	18	0			0	0
Hamburg	1981-82	10	0			5	0
Total		28	0			5	0
New York Cosmos	1983	27	2	-	-	-	-	27	2
Total		27	2
Combined Total		132	23
Career Totals		522	61			70	5	592	66

External links