Franz Beckenbauer, the German soccer legend who coached and performed for World Cup champions, dies at 78

BERLIN — Franz Beckenbauer, who gained the World Cup each as participant and coach and have become one in every of Germany’s most beloved personalities along with his easygoing allure, has died. He was 78.

Beckenbauer’s dying was first introduced by way of an announcement from his household to German information company dpa after which confirmed by the German soccer federation.

“It’s with deep unhappiness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, handed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his household,” the household stated in its assertion. “We ask that we be allowed to grieve in peace and be spared any questions.”

The assertion didn’t present a reason for dying. The previous Bayern Munich nice, who turned affectionately generally known as the “Kaiser,” had struggled with well being issues in recent times.

Beckenbauer additionally needed to deal with allegations of impropriety in later years. However they did nothing to wreck the esteem during which he was held.

“The world of FC Bayern is now not the way in which it was once — abruptly darker, quieter, poorer,” the Bavarian powerhouse stated on its web site.

Beckenbauer was one in every of German soccer’s central figures. As a participant, he reimagined the defender’s position in soccer and captained West Germany to the World Cup title in 1974 after it had misplaced to England within the 1966 remaining. He was the coach when West Germany gained the event once more in 1990, a symbolic second for a rustic within the midst of reunification, months after the Berlin Wall fell.

“The ‘Kaiser’ was among the best gamers our sport has ever seen,” stated Bernd Neuendorf, president of the German soccer federation. “Together with his lightness, his class and his imaginative and prescient, he set requirements on the sphere. … Franz Beckenbauer leaves an important legacy for the federation and soccer as a complete.”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz wrote on social media that Beckenbauer “impressed generations of enthusiasm for German soccer. We’ll miss him.”

Beckenbauer’s dying comes simply two days after the announcement that Mario Zagallo, the Brazilian who turned the primary individual to win the World Cup as a participant and coach, had died at 92. The one different individual to realize that feat is France’s Didier Deschamps.

Beckenbauer was additionally instrumental in bringing the extremely profitable 2006 World Cup to Germany, although his legacy was later tainted by costs that he succeeded in successful the internet hosting rights solely with the assistance of bribery. He denied the allegations.

“We didn’t wish to bribe anybody and we didn’t bribe anybody,” Beckenbauer, who headed the World Cup organizing committee, wrote in his final column for each day tabloid Bild in 2016.

Beckenbauer and three different members of the committee had been formally made prison suspects that 12 months by Swiss prosecutors who suspected fraud within the true function of multimillion-euro funds that linked the 2006 World Cup with FIFA.

However he was ultimately not indicted in 2019 for well being causes, and the case ended and not using a judgment when the statute of limitations expired in 2020 amid delays to the court docket system brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

Beckenbauer was briefly suspended in 2014 by FIFA’s ethics committee from all football-related exercise for failing to cooperate with prosecutor Michael Garcia’s probe of alleged corruption within the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes. The suspension was lifted in the course of the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when he agreed to cooperate.

The allegations broken Beckenbauer’s standing in public notion for the primary time. Till then, he had seemingly been unable to say or do something mistaken. Germans merely liked him.

“He did all the pieces {that a} German just isn’t alleged to do,” former Bayern Munich teammate Paul Breitner as soon as stated. “He obtained divorced, he left his kids, took off along with his girlfriend, obtained into hassle with tax collectors, left his girlfriend once more.

“However he’s forgiven for all the pieces as a result of he’s obtained an excellent coronary heart, he’s a optimistic individual and he’s at all times prepared to assist. He doesn’t conceal his weaknesses, doesn’t sweep his errors beneath the carpet.”

The son of a publish official from the working-class Munich district of Giesing, Beckenbauer turned one of many biggest gamers to grace the sport in a profession that additionally included stints in the USA with the New York Cosmos within the late Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties.

Born on Sept. 11, 1945, months after Germany’s give up in World Warfare II, Beckenbauer studied to change into an insurance coverage salesman however signed his first skilled contract with Bayern when he was 18.

“You aren’t born to change into a world star in Giesing. Soccer for me was a deliverance. Trying again, I can say: Every part went based on how I’d imagined my life. I had an ideal life,” Beckenbauer advised the Sueddeutsche newspaper journal in 2010.

Beckenbauer personalised the place of “libero,” the free-roaming nominal defender who usually moved ahead to threaten the opponent’s objective, a task now nearly disappeared from trendy soccer and infrequently seen earlier than his days.

A chic, cool participant with imaginative and prescient, Beckenbauer outlined as captain the Bayern Munich aspect that gained three successive European Cup titles from 1974 to 1976.

In his first World Cup as a participant in 1966, West Germany misplaced the ultimate to host England as Beckenbauer chased Bobby Charlton across the area, having been given the duty of marking the England standout.

4 years later, along with his arm strapped to his physique due to a shoulder harm, Germany misplaced a memorable semifinal to Italy.

Lastly, in 1974 at house, Beckenbauer captained West Germany to the title.

Beckenbauer left Bayern for New York in 1977 and later recalled fondly the time spent in the USA.

“From Munich-Giesing to New York Metropolis, that was an enormous step,” he stated.

Beckenbauer stated the decisive step in luring him to the Cosmos was the helicopter trip membership officers gave him from the roof of the Pan Am Constructing throughout Manhattan to Giants Stadium in New Jersey.

“That was then probably the most trendy stadium on the planet, with VIP bins,” he stated. “We didn’t have that in Europe. As we flew over the stadium, I advised them, ‘Superb, cease it, I’m coming.’”

In that 2010 interview, Beckenbauer additionally recalled visits to famed nightclub Studio 54 with fellow Cosmos stars Pele and Carlos Alberto.

Beckenbauer missed the 1978 World Cup as a result of the Germans determined to not invite gamers who had been taking part in overseas. He returned to Germany in 1980, spent two seasons with Hamburger SV — and gained one other Bundesliga championship, his fifth — earlier than returning for a remaining season with the Cosmos.

Though he had by no means coached earlier than, Beckenbauer was employed to revive West Germany in 1984 after a flop on the European Championship.

West Germany made it to the ultimate of the 1986 World Cup, shedding to Diego Maradona’s Argentina workforce in Mexico Metropolis. Though West Germany didn’t win the 1988 Euros title at house, it went to the ultimate of the 1990 World Cup in Rome and defeated Argentina, one other spotlight within the 12 months after the autumn of the Berlin Wall.

The penalty objective got here from Andreas Brehme, a defender Beckenbauer had as soon as advised to “play the piano, play the flute however not soccer.”

Whereas his workforce celebrated, Beckenbauer minimize a lonely determine strolling and reflecting on the Olympic Stadium.

Later, on the information convention, he stated he was “sorry for the remainder of the world” as a result of a united Germany could be unbeatable for years to come back. However Germany needed to wait 24 years earlier than successful one other World Cup title.

As soon as he left for New York, Beckenbauer by no means had a house in Munich. He lived simply throughout the border within the Austrian Alpine resort of Kitzbuehel, the place taxes had been decrease.

Beckenbauer was a voracious traveler and personally visited all 31 international locations that certified for the World Cup in Germany in 2006. He stated he obtained the urge to journey as a toddler by amassing footage for a sticker album.

“There have been photographs from Africa, America. It obtained me … however I by no means thought I’d expertise it personally,” he stated. “There are lots of who journey however who see nothing as a result of they’re too busy. I used to be at all times curious.”

Beckenbauer retired from the West Germany job after teaching the workforce to the 1990 World Cup triumph. It was the final event sport performed by a West German-only workforce.

He didn’t have a lot success teaching Marseille however gained the Bundesliga title with Bayern in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996, each after taking on as coach late within the season. He later turned Bayern’s president till leaving most capabilities when he turned 65 in 2010.

Beckenbauer’s authorized points across the 2006 World Cup continued into his retirement, however he remained a much-loved determine in German soccer and society.

AP reporters Geir Moulson and James Ellingworth and former AP sports activities author Nesha Starcevic contributed.