The German football legend died this Monday, January 8 at the age of 78.
Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer is dead. It was his family who announced the news this Monday, January 8 to the DPA press agency. Crowned world champion as a player then as a coach, the German left his mark on football history. In a documentary dedicated to him, his family gave a poignant and disturbing testimony about the former defender. “Irony” of history, this documentary was to be broadcast this Monday, January 8 on German TV.
Blind in his right eye, Franz Beckenbauer had seen his health decline for several years. The player’s brother, Walter, recently confided his concern: “if I said he was well, I would be lying and I don’t like lying. He doesn’t feel well”, he told the German press not long ago. The former international had “constantly ups and downs” in recent weeks. The former legend notably missed the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, explaining that he had suffered a “so-called heart attack in one eye”. “Unfortunately, I can no longer see anything out of my right eye and I have to pay attention to my heart,” he added at the time.
Although the exact causes of Franz Beckenbauer’s death at the age of 78 are unknown at the moment, there have been rumors for several days about the deterioration of his health. Lothar Matthäus, another German legend, testified to this effect. “We wish him the best, that he regains his former energy. Of course, we hope that he gets better. Franz always said that health was the most important thing in life. He did not at the moment.”
Who was the German?
He was the captain of this West Germany which won the World Cup in 1974, the Euro in 1972 and the European Champions Club Cup with Bayern Munich. Franz Beckenbauer was also named Ballon d’Or twice and won the World Cup with Germany as a coach, just like a certain Didier Deschamps a few years ago… After his football career he reconverted in the offices becoming manager of the Bavarian club, he was president of the supervisory board from 2002 to 2009. In 2006, he was president of the organizing committee of the German World Cup and remained from 2007 to 2011 a member of the FIFA executive committee .
A short stint at OM
It was Bernard Tapie’s dream, but the idyll was very short-lived in the Old Port. It was in 1990 that Beckenbauer arrived at Olympique de Marseille, freshly world champion, but the Bavarian only lasted a few months and slammed the door on December 31, tired of the interference of his exuberant president. On RMC Sport, Eric Di Meco, who worked with him for 6 months, gives his testimony. “I knew him for six months. He is the character with the greatest class that I have met in football, and one of the three or four monsters that I have come across and who remain engraved for life in your memory even when you stay six months. It was class, it was talent.”