Pele, Maradona, Puskas, Cruyff, Di Stefano, Best were all perhaps more skilled players than Franz Beckenbauer at the individual level. But if one talks about the best in terms of impact on the game, then ‘Der Kaiser’ is up there with the very best. He was innovative, a real competitor and probably one of the smartest players in the game’s history.
But no one is born great. Life is a series of events that eventually lead you down your destined path. It was no different for Beckenbauer. Here’s taking a look at some of the events that defined him as a player and individual.
The brick wall
Many have heard the story how cricket’s greatest batter, Don Bradman, honed his skills by hitting a golf ball with a stump against a curved wall. The curved wall meant the ball would come back at different angles and in turn it honed his reflexes and made him the best there ever was.
In Munich after World War II, a young Beckenbauer put the wall to work in a different way. “That wall was the most honest teammate I could ever have wished for,” he said years later. “Whenever you played a proper pass to it, you’d get a proper pass back and didn’t need to run.”
The comfort he gained while on the ball as a result went on to define him as a player. He would rarely, if ever, need to look down on the ball.
Moving to Bayern
The first recorded retelling of the take seems to originate with Beckenbauer’s first autobiography, which was ghosted by noted columnist Rolh Gonther and published in 1966.
“My friends had decided to leave SC 1906 (the club ground was right outside Beckenbauer’s home) together with me and join 1860, but the moment when 1860’s centre-half gave me a slap in the face during the final of a tournament in Neubiberg wreaked havoc with our plans. After this schoolboy game against 1860, which we lost 1-4, with me scoring our consolation goal from the penalty spot, we all went to Bayern instead.”
It was a move that changed Bayern’s fortunes. He first helped them win promotion (playing as a midfielder) and then graduated to the sweeper role around 1971.
Infuriatingly arrogant
Rudi Weiss, who held roles as a player, coach and advisor for over 50 years at Bayern, felt Benckenbauer would often display poor behaviour.
Before Beckenbauer was 16, he was promoted to Bayern’s U-19 team. In his first autobiography he admitted he “used to complain about anything our youth coach said. I was always late, grumbled constantly and left early whenever he asked us to stay around after a game. I was a lout, what you would call a pubescent young man”.
That behaviour extended to the field of play as well. Weiss recalled: “He talked back to referees. He retaliated if he was brought down. If someone’s pass wasn’t perfect, he refused to chase the ball and just made a dismissive gesture with his hand. He would tap his forehead and call his team-mates twerps. It was unsociable behaviour. He was benched for smoking as well.
“He could play though but the act of being put in the reserves for the semis of the DFB’s Juggedlanderpokal, the youth states cup, in 1963, lit a fire under him.
Fighting spirit
At times he showed a real fighting spirit, once playing the second half of the 1970 World Cup semifinal against Italy with his dislocated shoulder in a sling. The game would be widely described as “the game of the century”, and as “the most wonderful, dramatic and fabulous game of all time” by Mexico newspaper Excelsior.
Fouled by Italy’s Pierluigi Cera in the 70th minute, Beckenbauer struggled on with his right arm taped to the body and his hand on the German FA badge just below his heart through 50 more exhausting minutes. The 102,000 fans who had turned up for the game thought he won’t be able to continue but West Germany didn’t have an option — they had used their allotted substitutions. So, he played to give his team “hope”.
The match was lost in extratime but Germany had gained a leader of the higher calibre.
Sweeping them away
Tschik Cajkovski, the Bayern manager at that time, initially received a lot of criticism for “wasting” Beckenbauer’s talent at the back. But the results showed why it was the right move.
Eduardo Galeano, the Uruguayan poet, wrote in ‘Soccer in Sun and Shadow’: “Bucking the trend towards a soccer of Panzer-style strength, [Beckenbauer] proved that elegance can be more powerful than a tank and delicacy more penetrating than a howitzer.”
Beckenbauer often played as the middle centre-back in a back five for Bayern, covering as the deepest defender in a libero role. He provided cover for direct passes made in behind, especially when the other central defenders were marking opponents. He would also step up to press whenever an opponent was freely carrying the ball through the central spaces, when his teammates still had an opponent to mark.
What set him apart, however, was his ability on the ball. He had incredible passing range with which he could start counter-attacks and he could send incisive passes to the feet of attackers or dribble forward himself. He was not afraid to follow up a forward pass with a run for the return pass, using one-two combinations to add an extra player in midfield and penetrate forward. He thus carried a truly unique goal threat through the middle of the pitch.
Galeano said his forays forward were “like fire.”
“I was pretty much the first to interpret the position offensively, as an attacker, and not only stay back and play as a sweeper, as was usual then,” Beckenbauer said in a 2006 interview with FIFA. “Maybe that was just my game. By nature I was more of an attacking player.”
Becoming coach
Beckenbauer wanted nothing to do with football after retiring. But his hand was forced by events.
In 1984, German football was at a low point. West Germany had been knocked out in the quarter-finals of the European Championship. And two years earlier, in the 1982 World Cup, goalkeeper Harald Schumacher had deliberately collided with the onrushing French midfielder Patrick Battiston, knocking him unconscious with many teeth missing.
Unharmed himself, Schumacher showed little concern for the prone Battiston, attempting to get on with the game. His actions and the poor performances of West Germany left its football in desperate need for change.
After a falsified article in Bild newspaper headlined “Franz: I’m ready” he met with the DFB president and was convinced to take up a caretaker role until he got his coaching license and became the official coach. However, the stint lasted from 1984 until 1990. He had predicted that it would take 10 years before Germany reached the top again, but they needed just six.
Beckenbauer attempted to rediscover the creative element he felt Germany’s “blind” players were lacking. He did that and more.
“I kept my speeches short as captain,” he said. “I focused on the key points of the opposition of the day. As coach, I was never afraid to give long speeches to the players throughout our preparations. It was important they had all the information possible.”