Franz Beckenbauer: Germany says goodbye to the “Kaiser”

An idol of German football, he turned everything he touched into gold. At the end of his life, however, personal dramas and health problems made him a recluse. “For German football he was and is pure happiness. There has never been a better one. There will never be”, wrote friend and former teammate Günter Netzer in a message sent in 2010 to Franz Beckenbauer when he turned 65.

At that time, no one suspected that, from 2015 onwards, the last years of the illustrious German star's life would be eclipsed by shadows.

As a football player, Beckenbauer reigned supreme on the pitch. It is no surprise that the boy born in 1945 in Munich, Bavaria, was given the nickname “Kaiser Franz” – or “Emperor Franz”, translated into Portuguese.

There are different versions about the origin of the nickname. Beckenbauer himself liked to say it was because he posed for photographers next to a bust of Austrian Emperor Franz I in 1971 during a friendly match with FC Bayern München in Vienna.

For others, “Kaiser Franz” was born in the 1969 championship final against FC Schalke. After committing a foul against Reinhard “Stan” Libuda, known as the “King of Westphalia”, Beckenbauer was reportedly covered in boos by Schalke fans, leaving with the following response: scrambling with the ball for 40 seconds in front of the rival fans . It is said that the reporters chose the term “Emperor” to describe this provocation after the “King” was missed.

“Arrogant idiot”

Beckenbauer shaped the role of the modern libero in front of the defense like no other. With his chest puffed out and his head held high, he organized the game and made it quick with his long, precise passes, often played with the outside of his foot. His own body posture seemed almost arrogant, distant, truly “imperial”.

And although football fans knew that Beckenbauer was, in his time, one of the best players in the world, he never became a public favorite. “I was considered an arrogant idiot with an arrogant playing style,” Beckenbauer would state years later.

Beckenbauer joined FC Bayern at the age of 13, celebrating his greatest victories at the club in the late 1960s and throughout the celebrated 1970s. While he was team captain from 1970 until his departure from the club in 1977, the team won one title after another: four-time German champion, four-time winner of the German Football Association (DFB) Cup, winner of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1967, three-time consecutive champion of the UEFA Champions League, winner of the Intercontinental Cup in 1976.

World and European champion

From 1971, Beckenbauer also carried the captain's banner in the German national team. He was the first national player to play more than 100 matches, reaching a total of 103. The “Emperor” led the DFB team, further enhanced by other Bayern Munich stars, such as Sepp Maier, Paul Breitner, Uli Hoeness and Gerd Müller, to the title of European Champion in 1972 and the biggest victory in his playing career: winning the 1974 World Cup, played at home.

After those glorious years, Beckenbauer played in the American League, alongside King Pelé, and was American champion three times. He returned to Germany in 1980 thanks to Hamburger SV manager Günter Netzer and won a fifth German championship title in 1982, although he only appeared on the field a few times.

At the end of his career, the libero returned to the New York Cosmos. His last game, under contract, was a quarterfinal loss at the American Championships in September 1983.

Crowned “Player of the Year” four times in Germany and twice in Europe, Beckenbauer was also honored at home with the title “Player of the 20th Century”.

Coach of world champions

As a player, Beckenbauer was already an on-field coach, renowned German sports journalist Hans Blickensdörfer once wrote. It was no surprise, therefore, that the “Kaiser” moved to the coaching bench in 1984, just a year after leaving the field. His position: team leader of the national team, a designation that the DFB had to invent, as Beckenbauer was neither a coach by training nor had a license to practice the job – the honorary title would come years later.

Under Beckenbauer, the DFB team was runner-up in the world championship in 1986 in Mexico, but there were serious disagreements between the coach and the team, with insults being exchanged. Four years later, however, everything was water under the bridge. The image of Beckenbauer after the 1-0 victory over Argentina in the 1990 World Cup final in Rome went around the world – in it, he is seen walking alone on the pitch, hands in his pockets, absorbed in thought. The “Kaiser” had led a “troupe of scouts” – in the words of the captain at the time, Lothar Matthäus – to the title of world champion.

“Deputy Minister of Germany”

It seemed like everything Beckenbauer touched turned to gold.

When he took on an interim role as coach of FC Bayern, he won the German championship title in 1994; two years later, succeeding Otto Rehhagel in the same post, he won the UEFA cup. At that time, Beckenbauer was already president of the title-holding German club, a position he held for 15 years.

Furthermore, from 1998 onwards, the “Kaiser” became part of the presidency of the DFB. Shortly afterwards, he became head of the bid committee for the 2006 World Cup, bringing the tournament to Germany and turning it into a “summer dream”. Because of this, he was praised by “Der Spiegel” magazine as the “unofficial substitute minister for Foreign Affairs”, someone who could “do politics in the same relaxed way as he played football”.

Scandal

In 2015, the same “Der Spiegel” knocked Beckenbauer off the pedestal of his imaginary monument. The magazine revealed a suspicious million-dollar payment made by the German bid committee before the tournament was awarded. The suspicion is that the money had been used to buy votes, something that the DFB denied, although it admitted the payment.

After much hesitation, Beckenbauer finally broke his silence: “I, as president of the organizing committee at the time, take responsibility for this error.” But vote buying, according to him, was not there.

The case led to criminal investigations, and compromising documents containing the top hat's signature came to light. “I always signed blindly, even blankly”, defended Beckenbauer.

Health problems

The World Cup scandal led him to withdraw from public life. In recent years he lived mainly in Salzburg, Austria, with his wife from a third marriage. Beckenbauer was the father of five children from different relationships. One of them, Stephan, died of a brain tumor in 2015, aged 46. “It was the biggest loss of my life,” he said later. “I don’t know if it’s possible to overcome the death of a child. Probably not.”

Beckenbauer's health has deteriorated in recent years. He underwent two heart operations in 2016 and 2017. In addition, he suffered an eye attack and ultimately lost vision in his right eye.

“He is suffering a lot, also with all the drama surrounding his person,” said Uli Hoeness at the time, president of FC Bayern and a long-time friend of Beckenbauer. “He did incredible things and put nothing in his pocket. At some point, there must be peace. We should let him live in peace.”

Faced with the “Kaiser's” deteriorating health, the Swiss Public Prosecutor's Office in July 2019 separated the investigation against Bec
kenbauer from the other cases related to the World Cup scandal.

At Uwe Seeler's funeral ceremony in August 2022, Beckenbauer was absent, as he was at the funeral of Brazilian football legend Pelé in January 2023. “I will accompany my friend in my heart on his last journey,” he said at the time.

A few years ago, someone asked “Kaiser” if he had any regrets in his life. “Repentance? From what? No!”

Franz Beckenbauer died at the age of 78, on January 7, 2024, his family said.