![]() Central Press/Hulton Archive/Getty Images Franz Beckenbauer skippered Bayern Munich to numerous trophies, including the European Cup in 1975. "If Franz tells them the ball is square, they will believe it," joked Otto Rehhagel, the former Werder Bremen and Greece coach. To this day, his opinions on the game carry deep resonance, even if he's happy to revise them at the drop of a hat. Die Lichtgestalt ("figure of light"), they started calling him. ![]() Taking the national team to another World Cup win in 1990 as team manager made him a veritable demigod in postwar German history the successful bid and staging of the 2006 tournament with him as head of the organising committee confirmed his exalted position. And a few hours after the win in the Olympic stadium, he ordered his players to boycott the German FA's victory banquet over their refusal to let the players' wives take part. Before the tournament, he negotiated a 70,000 DM bonus for winning the competition during an ill-tempered meeting that lasted until 5 in the morning. "He was outstanding in every single game of the World Cup and showed leadership qualities that helped the team find its feet," Hoeness said.īeckenbauer was not afraid to take on the German FA, either. "He took charge in this terrible situation, when the team was about to fall apart, protected Schon and rebuilt the team with him." Netzer was one of the losers in the reshuffle, along with Beckenbauer's club teammate Uli Hoeness, but both realised that The Kaiser had been right. "Of all his attainments for German football, this was one was his biggest," said Netzer. Franz Beckenbauer celebrates World Cup glory in 1974. Beckenbauer delivered a no-holds-barred speech in front of the team, singled out underachieving players and reshaped the lineup for the rest of tournament in conjunction with team manager Helmut Schon. After the surprising 1-0 defeat by the GDR (East Germany) in the first group stage, team morale had hit rock bottom. According to his West Germany teammate Gunter Netzer, however, Beckenbauer's most important achievement had occurred off the pitch. "The white Pele," Kicker magazine called him. The World Cup win secured Beckenbauer's status as a bona fide superstar. "Beckenbauer showed his genius," wrote Italian newspaper Il Giorno after the final. But there was plenty of his customary skill on the ball, too, of course. Playing as a sweeper, in a role that he had helped to revolutionise over the course of a few years - he was a deep-lying playmaker rather than the last line of defence - Beckenbauer even headed the ball out of his box a few times, despite a famous reluctance to do so that some (jokingly) ascribed to his being worried about his hair. In the Munich final, Beckenbauer starred as "the rook in the battle," as the German TV commentator would have it. He had already led the national team to a first European championship win two years earlier and his club side Bayern Munich to the first of three European Cup triumphs in the 4-0 replay against Atletico Madrid in May 1974. The 2-1 win over Johan Cruyff's Netherlands marked the pinnacle of a golden era for German football - Beckenbauer's era. The defeat had hurt too much.įour years later, the man dubbed Der Kaiser for his regal playing style on the pitch would lift the World Cup trophy as captain in his hometown of Munich. London's Evening Standard praised him as a "wounded, beaten but proud Prussian officer." He had no time for the praise, however. ![]() The Azzurri ended up going through to the final, thanks to Gianni Rivera's goal in the 111th minute that clinched a 4-3 win, but Germany, and Beckenbauer in particular, had won many plaudits. Beckenbauer struggled on with his right arm fixed to his body by tape and his hand on the German FA badge just below his heart, through 50 more thrilling, exhausting minutes. The Bayern Munich player, then still a central midfielder and only 24 years old, had suffered a dislocated shoulder after a foul from Italy's Pierluigi Cera in the 70th minute. Veteran striker Uwe Seeler, of Hamburg, was the official West Germany skipper during the tournament, but the elegant, effortless Beckenbauer had become the team's fulcrum at his second World Cup. That much had become clear during the 1970 World Cup semifinal against Italy in Mexico City's Azteca stadium, a match that would later be widely described as "the game of the century" as well as "the most wonderful, dramatic and fabulous game of all time" by the Mexican newspaper Excelsior. 1.įranz Beckenbauer didn't need the captaincy armband to be a true leader on the pitch. 18-29, ESPN FC will reveal its 10-man shortlist of the finest skippers to have graced the game before conducting a vote for the winner. Who is the greatest captain of all time? From Aug.
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