In the pantheon of the greatest footballers ever, Franz Beckenbauer occupies a unique place. It’s usually attack-minded players that tend to dominate GOAT (greatest of all time) lists, for their goals, dribbles and through balls are more aesthetically appealing to the naked eye than say a well-timed tackle or a clever interception. Primarily required to take up a deeper position on the pitch, Beckenbauer’s game wasn’t all about attack. He wasn’t as crafty as Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi with the ball, as lethal as Pele in front of goal and didn’t have a trademark manoeuvre like Johan Cruyff to captivate spectators in the stands. What he did have though was an abundance of defensive acumen and the ability to carry the ball from the back, pioneering the role of an “attacking sweeper” as FIFA describes it during his distinguished playing career. In essence, he was a complete footballer who was at ease on any part of the pitch and did full justice to the ‘Der Kaiser’ moniker with his grace and authority. His early years as a centre-forward were perhaps responsible for influencing Beckenbauer’s all-encompassing style.
It’s telling that there hasn’t been anybody before or after him equipped with the gamut of skills that Beckenbauer was. Which is why while precocious talents get routinely hyped up as possible successors to Maradona or Messi or Ronaldo — avoidable and inaccurate as these projections tend to be — finding the ‘next Beckenbauer’ is a futile pursuit. By being mentioned in the same breath as Pele, Maradona, Messi and Cruyff, Beckenbauer was also able to achieve what very few players in his position manage – overcome the limitation of the casual observer who can’t look past goals and extravagant tricks.
In recent memory, Italian centre-back Fabio Cannavaro was briefly considered the best player in the world – he won the FIFA World Player of the Year in 2006 – but he came nearly three decades after Beckenbauer and didn’t sustain those standards for long enough.
In Beckenbauer’s case, there was nothing he couldn’t do. He could man-mark the opposition’s most dangerous player, like he did as a 20-year-old in a riveting duel with Bobby Charlton in the 1966 final at Wembley. Four years later, against the same opponents in the quarter-final, he could fashion a comeback from 0-2 down with a fine goal from just outside the 18-yard box. And in 1974, he could keep in check a Cruyff-inspired Dutch team that had flaunted its brand of ‘Total Football’ until the final.
Among Beckenbauer’s innumerable contributions to the sport, it’s his role in transforming Germany into an all-conquering force at the biggest stage that’s arguably his defining legacy. Sure, Beckenbauer was all of nine in post-war Munich when West Germany notched up their first World Cup win in 1954. But it wasn’t until Beckenbauer became the central figure of the German set-up in the late 1960s and 70s that they consistently started reaching the business end of these marquee events. In Beckenbauer’s three World Cup appearances as a player, his worst finish was the semi-final exit to Italy in 1970. He was runner-up in 1966 and won the crown in 1974.
That’s not all. Beckenbauer also led Germany to victory in the European Championships in 1972 and again to the final in 1976 in his last appearance for his country at a major tournament. That he captained his country in 50 of 103 matches is a testament to his leadership qualities.
Nothing underlines Beckenbauer’s role in shaping German football as a dominant entity as much as his club stint with Bayern Munich perhaps. It may appear incredulous now, but Bayern were languishing in the second tier of the Bundesliga when it was launched in 1963. It was only a couple of years later that the Bavarian club would achieve promotion to the top division, but Beckenbauer changed their fortunes as soon as he became captain in the 1968-69 season. He led them to the Bundesliga title in his very first season of assuming greater responsibility, and by the second half of the next decade, the German club was not just sweeping league titles at home but also dominating the continent – they won a hat-trick of Bundesliga titles from 1972 to 1974 before claiming successive European Cup wins (now called Champions League) from 1974 to 1976.
Once his playing career ended, his shrewd footballing mind was put to use as manager in extending Germany’s dominance at the World Cup. Having been appointed coach of the national team in 1984, he took them to the final in 1986, where they lost to Maradona’s Argentina, but he would ensure they made amends in Italy four years later. To this day, he is one of just three people to win the grand prize as both player and manager, alongside Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and France’s Didier Deschamps.
Lothar Matthaus, Beckenbauer’s World Cup captain in 1990, told SPORT BILD: “The shock is deep, even though I knew that Franz wasn’t feeling well. His death is a loss for football and for Germany as a whole. He was one of the greatest as a player and coach, but also off the pitch. Franz was an outstanding personality not only in football, and he enjoyed worldwide recognition.”
Germany’s four World Cup titles mean they are just behind Brazil with five, but their group-stage exits in the last two editions provide a stark reminder that they cannot take their success for granted. At least not until they are able to again unearth talents of Beckenbauer’s calibre.