Franz Beckenbauer, footballer nicknamed ‘Der Kaiser’ who won the World Cup as player and manager – obituary

Franz Beckenbauer, who has died aged 78, was one of the greatest footballers in the history of the game; elegant and magisterial in midfield or defence, “Der Kaiser” was one of only three men to have won the World Cup as both player and manager.

He was credited with inventing the “attacking sweeper” role, and his greatest triumph as a player came in that position in 1974 when he was captain of the West German team that took on the mighty Dutch, led by Johan Cruyff, in the World Cup final in Munich.

While the hosts were a formidable prospect themselves, Holland, playing what became known as “total football”, were clear favourites, and when they scored from a penalty given in the second minute by the English referee Jack Taylor they looked set fair for victory.

Led by Beckenbauer, though, the imperturbable Germans played their way back into the game, and in the 25th minute Paul Breitner, the team’s Maoist full-back, scored from the penalty spot. The Dutch paid for their over-confidence, and when Gerd Muller scored for Germany in the 43rd minute they were rattled; a frustrated Cruyff was booked for giving Taylor an earful as the teams walked off at half-time.

There were no more goals, and West Germany had beaten the team perennially hailed as the best never to win the World Cup.

Beckenbauer in 1964 – ullstein bild via Getty Images

Sixteen years later Beckenbauer was in the dug-out as West Germany took on Argentina in the 1990 final in Rome. Although their opponents were led by Diego Maradona they proved no match for the redoubtable Germans, and an Andi Brehme penalty sealed victory, leaving Maradona in tears as he watched the victors receive their medals.

Franz Anton Beckenbauer was born on September 11 1945 in Munich, a city laid waste by the ravages of the Second World War. His father, also Franz, was a postal worker; his mother was Antonie, née Hupfauf. One of two sons, he was brought up in the working class suburb of Giesing, and although his father tried to discourage him from football he began playing aged nine for the youth team at SC Munich 06.

He was a fan of 1860 Munich, then the dominant side in the city, and dreamt of playing for them, but a bad-tempered youth final between SC Munich 06 and 1860 that resulted in a fight between Franz and the opposing centre-half led to his joining Bayern instead.

There was early controversy in his career when he revealed that his girlfriend was pregnant and that he had no intention of marrying her; the 18-year-old was banned from the West Germany youth team until the coach, Dettmar Cramer, intervened.

He made his debut for Bayern, then in West Germany’s second tier, in 1964, and by the time they won promotion to the Bundesliga the following season he was a fixture in the side. That year he also made his full international debut, at the start of the 1965-66 season, and travelled with West Germany to England for the 1966 World Cup.

In their first group game the West Germans walloped Switzerland 5-0, with Beckenbauer scoring twice. The first goal came from a deft one-two with Uwe Seeler, the second after a solo run from the centre circle and a precise finish worthy of a world-class striker.

West Germany beat Argentina into second place in their group, and Beckenbauer was on the scoresheet again as they hammered Uruguay 4-0 in the quarter-finals, and once more in the 2-1 semi-final victory over the Soviet Union. But in that match he received his second booking of the tournament, which should have meant his missing the final. Handily, Fifa’s failure to ratify the caution left him clear to play.

But both he and Bobby Charlton were detailed by their respective managers, Helmut Schön and Alf Ramsey, to mark each other out of the game, making it considerably less attractive as a spectacle than it might have been.

Beckenbauer challenges Colin Bell during West Germany’s 3-2 victory against England in the quarter-finals of the 1970 World Cup in Mexico – Mirrorpix via Getty Images

England famously prevailed 4-2 after extra time in 1966, but in 1968 West Germany enjoyed a measure of revenge when Beckenbauer scored the only goal as his side beat the world champions 1-0; his shot bounced off Brian Labone and flew past Gordon Banks to give the Germans their first victory over England for 38 years.

Two years later at the Mexico World Cup, Beckenbauer’s side romped through the group stage and faced England in the quarter-finals. The reigning champions took a 2-0 lead, then with 22 minutes to go of normal time, as Bobby Charlton was being taken off to rest his legs for the semi-final, Beckenbauer – who had again been detailed to mark him – was liberated.

Just as Charlton had left the field, Beckenbauer surged forward. His shot felled Francis Lee, and he gathered the rebound and sent the ball beneath the hapless Peter Bonetti to launch the West Germans’ fightback.

A 3-2 victory saw them through to a semi-final against Italy, for whom Roberto Boninsegna scored in the eighth minute. Karl-Heinz Schnellinger equalised in the 90th, and a madcap half-hour of extra time ensued, the Italians prevailing 4-3.

Beckenbauer clears the ball as Holland’s Johan Neeskens closes in in the 1974 World Cup final – Popperfoto via Getty Images

Beckenbauer was named national team captain in 1971, and by now was being deployed in his best position, a “libero” in front of the back four, covering his defenders but with licence to go forward, link with the midfielders and set up attacks.

“I decided that we needed to take a step forward,” Helmut Schön recalled. “Having a player such as Franz was an enormous advantage. He had outstanding positional sense, could tackle when necessary and always had attacking possibilities in his head.”

The following year the West Germans finally won their first international tournament since “the miracle of Bern” in 1954, when a shock victory against Hungary in the World Cup final had come to stand as a symbol for the nation’s postwar resurgence. Eighteen years later Beckenbauer led the way as they cruised to the European Championship final at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels, where the Soviet Union were swept aside 3-0.

Beckenbauer lifts the World Cup in 1974 watched by his teammate Sepp Maier – AP

In the qualifiers for the tournament Beckenbauer and his side had become only the fourth team to beat England at Wembley, and Beckenbauer later told the sportswriter Ken Jones: “Some of my greatest personal memories are of matches between us… As a small boy, one of my first football heroes was an Englishman, Stanley Matthews. I have warm feelings about Bobby Charlton and Bobby Moore – great players and, yes, friends.”

Following their World Cup win in 1974, two years later the Germans were on course to retain their European title, meeting Czechoslovakia in the final in Belgrade. But they lost on penalties following a 2-2 draw after extra time, and the following year Beckenbauer departed from the international stage with 103 caps.

At club level, Bayern Munich, with Beckenbauer at the helm, were beginning to sweep all before them. They won the Bundesliga in 1969, then three years in a row from 1972 to 1974.

They also won the European Cup three years on the trot: in 1974 they trounced Atletico Madrid 4-0 at the Heysel Stadium, and retained the trophy the following year by beating Leeds United 2-0 in Paris. They made it a hat-trick of victories in 1976, beating St-Étienne 1-0 at Hampden Park in Glasgow.

The following year, in the autumn of his career, Beckenbauer joined the brave new world of US soccer, signing up for the glamour boys of New York Cosmos for three seasons. A couple of years playing for Hamburg was followed by a brief stint back at Cosmos before he hung up his boots.

The number of world-class footballers who become world-class managers is vanishingly small, but Beckenbauer proved himself an outlier when, with no managerial experience at all, he took over the West Germany side in 1984, leading them two years later to the World Cup final in Mexico, where they lost to Diego Maradona’s Argentina.

In the 1988 European Championship they lost in the semi-final to the eventual winners the Netherlands. Then came Beckenbauer’s greatest off-field achievement, at Italia 90, as that year’s World Cup was known. Having won their initial group, West Germany got their revenge against the Dutch in the round of 16 then disposed of Czechoslovakia to set up a semi-final date with the old foe, England.

Beckenbauer with his New York Cosmos teammates, l-r, Pele, Giorgio Chinaglia and Romerito – Bongarts/Getty Images

In a match made famous by the tears of Paul Gascoigne, the Germans – as they generally do – won the penalty shoot-out. The final was an opportunity to extract more revenge, this time on Argentina, their World Cup conquerors from 1986.

What could have been a thrilling game, however, was a dull affair, with Maradona a much-reduced threat. In the event Andi Brehme’s penalty made Beckenbauer only the second man, after the Brazilian Mário Zagallo, to win the World Cup as both player and coach (Didier Deschamps would later follow for France).

Beckenbauer departed the international arena to spend a year at Marseille, leading them to the French league title and the 1991 European Cup final, which they lost on penalties to Red Star Belgrade. He then returned to Bayern Munich for two brief spells as coach, winning the Bundesliga, and then the 1996 Uefa Cup with a 5-1 aggregate victory against Bordeaux in the two-legged final.

Beckenbauer shouts from the touchline at his West Germany team during the 1988 European Championships – Bongarts/Getty Images

In 1994 he had become president of Bayern, and his astute handling of the club laid down the foundations for even greater success; he stepped down in 2009. He also proved an adept lobbyist, leading the successful German bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

In 2014, however, he was banned from football for 90 days by Fifa for refusing to co-operate with the inquiry into corruption over the allocation of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar; the suspension was lifted when he agreed to participate in Fifa’s inquiry, though two years later he was fined 7,000 Swiss francs for his initial refusal.

In 2019, Black Mirror Leaks published emails to and from a Russian MP, Sergey Kapkov, which named Beckenbauer and his adviser, Fedor Radmann, as having received €3 million to vote in favour of Russia as the 2018 World Cup hosts, with an extra €1.5 million when the vote was won.

Franz Beckenbauer, who had heart operations in 2016 and 2017 and a hip replacement in 2018, was married three times, to Brigitte, Sybille and Heidi, and had a daughter and four sons. His first two marriages ended in divorce; Heidi survives him. Stephan, born in 1968, followed his father into professional football and played a handful of games for Saarbrucken before going into coaching and scouting with Bayern Munich; he died of a brain tumour in 2015.

Franz Beckenbauer, born September 11 1945, died January 7 2024

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