“Unfortunately, the sad list of football aces who have recently gone to heaven is one more name longer. Maradona, Pelé, Charlton, Zagallo… And now Franz Beckenbauer. I grew up in the eighties and I was aware of all these names.
I had the honor of meeting Mr. Beckenbauer personally. The nickname Der Kaiser or the Emperor suited him perfectly. We met for the first time during Bayern’s training camp in Sardinia, when he was the president of the club. Once I was among the first at breakfast and the boss called me to his table. I had respect for it: it was a huge name after all, and I didn’t speak German very well yet.
“Listen, David, didn’t your dad play football too?” he asked.
I nodded and Beckenbauer immediately added: “Karel! A great left-hander.’
Dad was very happy then and so was I. I didn’t even have a professional contract yet, but I could already sit next to Bayern’s greatest legends: in addition to Beckenbauer, there was also the famous gunner Gerd Müller. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and Uli Hoeness also worked in management at that time.
German legendary player and coach Franz Beckenbauer has diedVideo: sntv
It is to these men that Bayern owes where it is today. It’s a big club, but Beckenbauer and others took care of a more or less family atmosphere there.
When I heard about Rummenigge’s plan to do a big farewell at the Allianz Arena, which should be very unique, I was not surprised. It matches the size of Beckenbauer’s name, everyone looked up to him.
The idea of renaming the national cup the Beckenbauer-Pokal also sounds interesting. It’s not unrealistic at all. It just proves what a huge concept we are talking about: not only for German football, but also for world football. By the way, have you seen the biopic Der Kaiser? It symbolically ends with the golden 1990 World Cup, where Beckenbauer led Germany to the title despite not having a professional license. On the other hand, he had charisma and universal respect, and every other trophy only underlined his exceptionality.
I believe that I also knew his son Stephan, who worked for a long time with Bayern’s youth team. He was a great person. He died at forty-six, he was seriously ill. Franz often spoke of the fact that he owed a lot to his family: he could not be with the children as often as he would have liked. When Stephan fell ill, he tried to do everything possible for him, but he didn’t have time to save him. Now they are back together.
The spring Bundesliga, which starts at the weekend, takes on a new dimension. Bayern will have more motivation. If he managed to win the twelfth title in a row, he could symbolically dedicate it to the Emperor’s memory. He can start right away in Friday’s match with Hoffenheim.”
