Franz Beckenbauer

Lore & Background

Beckenbauer was born on 11 September 1945 in Munich, the second son of postal-worker Franz Beckenbauer Sr. and his wife Antonie. He grew up in the working-class district of Giesing, was raised as a Catholic, and started playing football at age nine with SC Munich '06 in 1954. He joined the Bayern Munich youth team in 1959 after a contentious tournament against 1860 Munich. In 1963, at age 18, he was banned from the West Germany national youth team after his girlfriend became pregnant, but was readmitted after the intervention of coach Udo Lattek.

In Their Own Story

The rain slicks the pitch at the Olympiastadion in 1974. Beckenbauer stands tall, his blue jersey soaked, eyes scanning the field not with fear, but with the calm calculation of a general surveying a battlefield. He doesn't just stop the attack; he intercepts the pass, turns, and launches a 40-yard diagonal that splits the Spanish defense like a knife. As Müller finishes the move, Beckenbauer raises a hand, not for celebration, but to direct his teammates back into position. The Emperor does not celebrate chaos; he commands it.

Reader's Guide

Beckenbauer made his Bayern debut in a Bundesliga promotion play-off on 6 June 1964. He became team captain for the 1968–69 season and led the club to its first league title. He began experimenting with the sweeper (libero) role around this time. At Bayern, he won the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1967 and three consecutive European Cups from 1974 to 1976, becoming the first player to win three European Cups as captain of his club. He also won three league championships from 1972 to 1974. After two spells with the New York Cosmos, he was inducted into the US National Soccer Hall of Fame.

Did You Know?

• Beckenbauer is one of several men, including Brazil's Mário Zagallo and France's Didier Deschamps, to have won the World Cup as a player and as a manager.
• He lifted the World Cup trophy as captain in 1974 and repeated the feat as a manager in 1990.
• He was the first captain to lift the World Cup and European Championship at the international level, though he was not the first to lift the European Cup as captain (Bobby Charlton preceded him in 1968).