For those who saw him play — even just in grainy videos — there’s a single image of Franz Beckenbauer that stands out. Striding out of the back, ball at his feet, head held high, eyes scanning for things only he could see, while worry builds in the eyes of the opponents: that was “Der Kaiser” who passed away on Monday, on the pitch.
But there’s far more to him than that.
You could say Franz Beckenbauer was a fortunate man. Most of us get just one act in our professional lives; he achieved GOAT candidate status as a player, made history as a World Cup-winning coach, helped his club consolidate its status as a juggernaut, organized a World Cup in his native Germany and ended his career as a member of FIFA’s executive committee. (That last one left him tarnished: more of this later.)
Along the way, he was a central part of the biggest soccer-related U.S. phenomenon pre-1994 World Cup, joining the New York Cosmos in their pomp and playing alongside Pelé, Carlos Alberto and Giorgio Chinaglia.
Most of all, with Pele and Johan Cruyff, he was part of a triumvirate of phenoms that defined an era during which the world shrank, TV proliferated the game and superstars became truly global.
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Beckenbauer also redefined a position: center back. He wasn’t the first sweeper, nor the first central defender who could play a pass and step into the midfield, but nobody did it as effectively and on such a big stage (arguably, before or after). The skills formed in his early years as an attacking midfielder never abandoned him.
The ability to move into the middle of the park, create man advantages or simply spray the ball with accuracy all over the pitch are things we take for granted today, but they were pioneered by Beckenbauer. So too was the idea that a center back wasn’t just a destroyer, but a creator, a guy who could illuminate a side; it may not have started with him, but nobody took it to a higher level.
In many ways, Beckenbauer was the first “modern” defender, which is why this commercial ahead of the 2006 World Cup, in which two kids fantasise about putting together a star-studded lineup of contemporary players, is so apt: even though he retired more than two decades earlier, he would not have been out of place among Zinedine Zidane, Kaka, Frank Lampard and the other stars of that tournament.
Beckenbauer made his first-team debut for Bayern Munich at 18 years of age and stuck around for 14 seasons, 582 appearances and 75 goals — a huge total for a guy who spent most of his career at the back. With the Bavarians, he won four league titles, four German Cups, a Cup Winners’ Cup and three European Cups. Then, in 1977, not yet 32, he joined the Cosmos and won three titles in four seasons.
He returned to the Bundesliga — not to Bayern, but to Hamburg, and contributed to another league title in 1981-82 before one final season with the Cosmos. It would be their penultimate season of existence before the North American Soccer League folded.
That was his club career. Running in parallel was an international career that spanned three World Cups, and he left his mark on each in the most emphatic way. In 1966, aged just 20, he was part of the West Germany side that reached the final, where he man-marked Sir Bobby Charlton out of the game. Beckenbauer’s side would end up losing to England on a goal that, to this day, most Germans regard as a “ghost goal,” the ball never actually crossing the line.
Four years later, in Mexico, West Germany looked headed to a showdown with Brazil‘s Pele in the final at the Azteca, only to be upset by Italy in an epic 4-3 extra-time thriller that FIFA still remembers as the “Game of the Century.” Take the time to watch the highlights and you’ll see Beckenbauer playing the last 50 minutes with a dislocated shoulder, arm strapped to his side in a sling. Yeah, he wasn’t just elegant and pretty to watch: he was hard as nails, too.
