Franz Beckenbauer was the first person to win the FIFA World Cup as captain (1974) and manager (1990). A mercurial defender during his playing days, the German legend will remain one of the most enduring figures in football
Franz Beckenbauer, one of only three men to win the World Cup as player and as a coach with Brazil's Mario Zagallo being the first, passed away on Sunday, the DFB said. Former captain of the German team in the 1970s, Beckenbauer had in the last years been suffering from health problems. (More Football News)
“It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” the family said in a statement to dpa, the German news agency. “We ask that we be allowed grieve in peace and spared any questions.”
As world football grieves about the German legend, here are ten facts about him that you need to know:
- Beckenbauer was the first person to win the FIFA World Cup as captain (1974) and manager (1990). In the 1974 final, he captained West Germany to the World Cup title. The German also coached the national side to World Cup glory in the 1990 World Cup final against Argentina.
- Beckenbauer shone during the 1966 World Cup, aged just 20, and won the award for the tournament's best young player.
- Beckenbauer has also won the European Championship in 1972, as well as the Ballon d'Or twice.
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- He played 582 times for Bayern Munich and went on to win top honours with the German top flight club as both as a player and a manager.
- As a player for Bayern, he lifted five league titles and was the captain for the German giants' three European Cup wins in 1974, 1975 and 1976.
- Beckenbauer was a voracious traveler and personally visited all 31 countries who had qualified for the World Cup in Germany in 2006.
- Beckenbauer also had spells as president at Bayern and vice-president of the German Football Association.
- Beckenbauer was in 2014 briefly suspended by FIFA’s ethics committee from all football-related activity for failing to cooperate with prosecutor Michael Garcia’s probe of alleged corruption in the 2018 and 2022 World Cup votes. The suspension was lifted during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil when he agreed to cooperate.
- He also had stints in the United States with the New York Cosmos in the late 1970s and early 1980s.
- In that 2010 interview, Beckenbauer also recalled visits to famed nightclub Studio 54 with fellow Cosmos stars Pele and Carlos Alberto.
Beckenbauer’s death comes just two days after the announcement that Mario Zagallo, the Brazilian who became the first person to win the World Cup as a player and coach, had died at the age of 92.
(With Agency inputs)