Franz Beckenbauer

• DFL Honorary Member
• World champion as player and coach

Franz Beckenbauer, born in Munich in 1945, became a DFL Ehrenangehöriger (Honorary Member) in 2010. Having captained Germany to victory in the European Championship in Belgium in 1972, he repeated the feat in the World Cup on home soil in 1974. In 1990, Franz Beckenbauer lifted the World Cup again in Italy, this time as manager of the German national team. The only other men to have won the World Cup as a player and coach are the Brazilian Mário Zagallo (1958/1962 and 1970) and Didier Deschamps of France (1998 and 2018). Only Franz Beckenbauer has ever won the Bundesliga title as a player, coach and President, with FC Bayern München. He served as President of the 2006 FIFA World Cup Organising Committee from 2000, as Vice President of the DFB (of which he is an honorary member) from 1998 to 2010, and as a member of the FIFA Executive Committee from 2007 to 2011.

“The Kaiser” is still regarded as one of the best players of all time. With FC Bayern München, he was a four-time winner of both the Bundesliga (adding another title with Hamburger SV after his return from New York Cosmos in 1983) and the DFB-Pokal. His trophy haul with the Munich side also includes the 1976 Intercontinental Cup, three European Cups and one UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup. Franz Beckenbauer was named European Footballer of the Year twice, and German Footballer of the Year four times. He made 103 international appearances (scoring 14 goals), was made honorary captain of the German national team, and played 424 Bundesliga games (scoring 44 goals). As a coach, he was also a title-winner in France with Olympique Marseille (1991) and in Germany with FC Bayern München (1994), whom he also guided to the UEFA Cup (1996).

After retiring as a player, Franz Beckenbauer set up an eponymous foundation, endowing it with capital stock of DM 1 million (around €510,000). The foundation helps people with mental or physical disabilities, as well as those in need through no fault of their own. Franz Beckenbauer died on 7 January 2024 at the age of 78.

_{Photo: picture alliance / rtn – radio tele nord}