Wherever Franz Beckenbauer was, there was light and lightness. On the soccer field, the emperor dribbled around his opponents with elegance.
As team boss, he led Germany, which was proud of unity, to triumph at the 1990 World Cup. The Summer Fairy Tale of 2006 was his masterpiece in his third career as a businessman and sports mastermind. He could even order sunshine from the Lord for four weeks of Teutonic football bliss.
Beckenbauer was the “lighting figure”, the most influential personality in German football – and one of the greatest of his profession in the world. He died on Sunday at the age of 78, as his family told the German Press Agency.
But years later, with the World Cup scandal, dark sides also emerged. The Beckenbauer myth has been damaged. After accusations surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup with dubious payments of millions to Qatar, a shadow fell on his illustrious life’s work, which really affected Beckenbauer. He was never proven to have committed any wrongdoing.
World career begins with a waddle
The world career began with a waddle. The episode from his youth in Munich, when the “60s” Gerhard König slapped him in the face in Giesing and the young Franz therefore went to the Bavarians and not the “Lions”, was also recounted by the old Franz with his own charm.
With the Reds, Beckenbauer became a European champion, world champion and international star, honorary captain of the national team and, after 103 international matches, also a polyglot US export at Cosmos in New York. He returned to Germany, played again for Hamburger SV and became team boss in 1984, when the national team was in dire need – with the World Cup triumph in Rome six years later as the crowning achievement.
Almost eight decades of Beckenbauer, who was chosen as a shining light in German football, offer countless material. Whether it was a TV documentary, a radio feature or a special issue – the multifaceted life was highlighted again and again on all channels. “All the Sundays in the world are united in me. If you have a life like that in these 70 years, starting from nothing and then making your way up through football…”, Beckenbauer once mused after his 70th birthday on ARD.
“And football has also become socially acceptable and is now so important that the highest politicians are concerned with it. And I was there.”
Beckenbauer among the string pullers
Beckenbauer was always there. His playing career was followed by a coaching career and then an official career. In the midst of the scandal era of FIFA boss Joseph Blatter, Beckenbauer established himself in the circle of powerful puppet masters and proved himself to be a master of the business – first as the German World Cup procurer, then also as the World Cup selector for the awards to Russia 2018 and Qatar 2022 .
In the Garcia report by the world association FIFA, Beckenbauer is exposed as a small-minded person when he did not want to take part in clearing up the scandal. For good reason? At least his confidants acted on the verge of legality, the document from the US lawyer shows. Beckenbauer himself never claimed to have known anything. The business was supposedly first done by his manager Robert Schwan, then later by his shadow man Fedor Radmann. This was also the case in the World Cup affair.
Scandal surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup
The dubious transfers of the equivalent of 6.7 million euros first to Qatar to scandal official Mohamed bin Hammam and then via the World Cup organizing committee and FIFA back to lender Robert Louis-Dreyfus also put Beckenbauer in distress, including investigations into suspected breach of trust of Switzerland.
The proceedings against him were separated from those against the other accused in the summer of 2019. Ultimately, like the case against three close companions from the summer fairy tale era, it came under the statute of limitations. Former top German politicians defended Beckenbauer in the scandal surrounding the 2006 World Cup.
Crooked deals, backroom dealings – no, not with him, that was the standard phrase. And: All the talk about corruption and bribery didn’t interest him years ago, and not today anyway, as he put it in his interview with the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” in November 2015. He issued blank signatures by the dozen. If he had read all the papers, he would still be busy today, the emperor said at the time.
“What do you always ask me?” He often complained when journalists wanted something from him. And then he did speak. But then Beckenbauer said nothing into the cameras and microphones, just as Football Germany was waiting for his answer in the scandal surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup.
Beckenbauer lost his great lightness even outside of the scandal. Understandably, he didn’t want a big celebration for his 75th birthday in 2020. By the time he turned 70, he had already taken it easy. His son Stephan had died a month earlier.
Rummenigge: “FCB’s most important personality”
Stephan Beckenbauer was one of five children. Beckenbauer married three times. The emperor admitted that he certainly neglected his family at times. Even before his 65th birthday, the Bavarian honorary president gave up his duties in order to have more time for his youngest children.
His sporting family has always been FC Bayern. “You are the first and best representative of FC Bayern. Wherever you were, whatever you did: you had great success,” said the then Bayern CEO Karl-Heinz Rummenigge on the anniversary and congratulated “the most important personality of FC Bayern Munich”. Rummenigge also warned that he would like to see more recognition of the contributions to German football. “He belongs in the ‘Top of the Tops’ category that has ever existed in football.”
Other companions also constantly praised Beckenbauer. “Franz Beckenbauer is the greatest blessing in German football. There was no one better before him and no one better will come after him,” said World Cup colleague Günter Netzer, repeatedly praising the achievements of the charismatic all-rounder. “Beckenbauer is the only one who can give the PDS a direct mandate in Bavaria,” cabaret artist Ottfried Fischer once joked.
“Happiness doesn’t come flying in through the window”
Beckenbauer is often quoted as saying, “Let’s go out and play football.” However, how hard and detail-oriented the trained insurance salesman worked is often forgotten. “Luck doesn’t just come out the window. You need hard work and perseverance. You have to work for it,” Beckenbauer liked to say. The allegations hit him hard. After South Africa he retreated to his winery – far away from the football world.
The life of the light-footed bon vivant, who once enjoyed chatting into any microphone or could lead an annual general meeting of the record champions as a solo entertainer, had become more difficult in recent years. For health reasons, Beckenbauer did not travel to the World Cup in Qatar. “I had a so-called ocular infarction in one eye. Unfortunately, I can’t see anything on the right side anymore. I can deal with that. And I have to be careful with my heart,” said Beckenbauer at the time.
He did not take part in his friend Pelé’s funeral service in Brazil at the beginning of 2023, nor did he take part in the meeting of the former 1990 World Cup team a few months later.
