Former national coach Berti Vogts is receiving a lot of support for his idea of naming the DFB Cup after Franz Beckenbauer. Several ex-footballers and former officials like the idea.
After Beckenbauer’s death on Sunday, Vogts warned that his name should not be forgotten by the following generations of footballers and said in an interview with the “Rheinische Post”: “Perhaps the DFB should think about it, for example the DFB Cup Franz Beckenbauer.”
“That’s not a bad idea,” said Olaf Thon, 1990 world champion, in an interview with Bayerischer Rundfunk. “I would support that 100 percent so that his name remains present,” said Jürgen Kohler to “Kicker”. “It would be an honor that corresponds to the services he has not only to German football, but to the entire country.”
Kohler, also world champion in 1990 with team boss Beckenbauer, also said: “Gerd Müller rightly got a statue next to the Allianz Arena in Munich. I think it would be nice if Franz could join him. He should get a statue next to him.”
“charming, lovable, great person”
Like Vogts, Thon and Kohler, Willi Lemke can also imagine a name change. “Football Germany would think that was very good,” said the former manager of SV Werder Bremen in an interview with the TV channel Welt on Tuesday. Beckenbauer was “the superstar of the last few decades in German football” and an “absolute world star”. The suggestion was “definitely appropriate,” said Lemke. But the German Football Association has to decide on this. He did not want to comment on the proposal for the time being.
There is also support from Reiner Calmund. “I think it would be great to rename the DFB Cup,” said the former Leverkusen manager to the “watson.de” portal. But Calmund added: “It’s not that easy to organize.”
The corruption allegations against Beckenbauer in connection with the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany do not represent an obstacle for Lemke: “The Germans are always checking to see if there is anything left to criticize. I think we shouldn’t put Franz Beckenbauer in this corner,” said the 77 year old. Furthermore, the events were never clarified.
Lemke explained that Beckenbauer had received millions in compensation for his voluntary work for the DFB. But he thinks of Franz Beckenbauer “as a very charming, lovable, great person, the footballer, but also the family man, the comrade and the friend. That’s how I experienced him and that’s how I’ll never forget him.”
