Player Profile - Franz Beckenbauer

FRANZ BECKENBAUER


Full Name: Franz Anton Beckenbauer.

Born: 11 September 1945 in Munich/Germany.

Nickname: Der Kaiser (Caesar, Emperor).

Position: Libero.

Caps:
West Germany 103 (1965-1977) / 14 goals

Domestic League Games:
West Germany 424 (1965-1977 & 1980-82) / 44 goals
USA 132 (1977-1980 & 1983) / 23 goals

Domestic Cup Games:
German Cup 66 (1965-1982) / 5 goals

European Cup Games:
80 (1966-1982) / 6 goals

International Club Cup Games:
European Champions Cup 40 (1969-1977) / 4 goals
European Cup Winners’ Cup 23 (1966-1972) / 1 goal
UEFA Cup 13 (1970-1982) / 1 goal
European Super-Cup 4 (1975-1976) / 0 goals
Intercontinental Cup 2 (1976) / 0 goals

European Footballer of the Year:
1965 (17th), 1966 (3rd), 1967 (4th), 1968 (4th), 1969 (7th), 1970 (4th), 1971 (5th), 1972 (winner), 1973 (4th), 1974 (2nd), 1975 (2nd), 1976 (winner)

German Footballer of the Year:
1966, 1968, 1974, 1976

Clubs
SC 1906 Munich (1953-1958)
Bayern Munich (Youth Team) (1958-1964)
Bayern Munich (1964-1977)
New York Cosmos (1977-1980)
Hamburg SV (1980-1982)
New York Cosmos (1983)

Trophies won (compact version):
1 World Cup
1 European Championship
5 German league titles (with Bayern and Hamburg)
3 NASL championships (with Cosmos)
3 European Champion Cups (with Bayern)
1 European Cup Winners’ Cup (with Bayern)
1 Intercontinental Cup (with Bayern)
4 German Cups (with Bayern)
2 times European Footballer of the Year
4 times German Footballer of the Year
Once Most Valuable Player NASL

Trophies won (detailed version):
World Cup: 1974
European Championship: 1972
European Champions Cup: 1974, 1975, 1976
European Cup Winners Cup: 1967
UEFA-Cup Finalist: 1982*
Intercontinental Cup Winner: 1976
German Champion: 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974, 1982
German runner-up: 1970, 1971, 1981
German Cup winner: 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971
German Cup runner-up: -
U.S. Champion: 1977, 1978, 1980
Best League Goal Scorer: never

World Cup Participation:
1966, 1970, 1974

European Championship Participation:
1968, 1972, 1976

* did not play

Franz Beckenbauer started to play for Bayern Munich in 1958 at the age of 12. Already at this early stage he possessed his later trademarks of lightfootedness, playful elements and creativity to such a degree that he was soon selected to play for the German Youth team. Due to his maturity his way from the youth team to the seniors went smoothly. During his youth days, Beckenbauer played as an inside forward, but when he first debuted at the Bayern senior team on June 6th, 1964, manager Zlatko Cajkovski (a former world class player) decided to let him play as an outright left, a position he had not played in before. This match took place in Hamburg against FC St. Pauli and despite winning it comfortably with 4-0, Bayern in the end didn`t manage to get promoted from the regional Southern German league to the newly-created Bundesliga first division league. Thus the next season (1964-65), Beckenbauer had to play his first professional year with the senior team in the regional Souther German league, where he played in 31 of 36 matches and scored 16 goals. He soon moved back from forward position to the central midfield, and almost instantly became the crucial player in Bayern`s aspiring team of hopefuls and seasoned players. Also in this season, a new player started to play inside forward for Bayern, his name was Gerd Müller. With Sepp Maier in goal (who already played for Bayern since 1962), the later legendary axis of Maier-Beckenbauer-Müller was beginning to establish itself in German football.

With this trio of soon-to-be world class players, Bayern began to rule the Souther regional league and finally managed to get promoted after the season. At this stage of his career, before entering the first German division, German managers Sepp Herberger and his successor Helmut Schön already had an eye on the talented youngster, who experts already called “the next Santamaria”. In April 1965, Beckenbauer was first invited to join the German national team in an exhibition match against Chelsea London, with Beckenbauer taking the part of right midfielder in a 4-2-4. Beckenbauer performed very well, but due to him still ‘only’ being a regional player, he was not selected for the next five FIFA A-matches. When the 1965-66 Bundesliga season started, Beckenbauer was first called up to play for West Germany in an official A-match. It was the crucial World Cup qualifier game in Stockholm against Sweden. Beckenbauer was playing in the midfield again. This would be his regular position in the German team for the next 6 years, much to Beckenbauer`s chagrin, who was playing centre back for Bayern since the start of the 1965-66 season, which was his favorite place on the field. Germany won the hard-fought match in Sweden and qualified for the 1966 World Cup in England. From this match onwards, Beckenbauer would be a regular for Germany for the rest of his international career.

From 1965-66 on, his story was one of almost fairytale-like success. With Bayern he won the German Cup in 1966 and ended up 3rd in the final Bundesliga table, an excellent performance for a newly promoted team. While he performed superbly already in his first Bundesliga season, it were his performances for West Germany in the 1966 World Cup in England that immediately put him on the map of international football. Beckenbauer played centrally in a midfield consisting of Wolfgang Overath, Helmut Haller and him. In the final against England, German manager Helmut Schön decided that Beckenbauer should man-mark England`s playmaker Bobby Charlton, which resulted in both legends neutralizing themselves. In a classic final, West Germany lost 2-4, but the name Franz Beckenbauer was now known around the football world.

Beckenbauer ended up third in the “Golden Ball” votings of 1966, behind Bobby Charlton and Eusébio, while he for the first time won the German Golden Ball that same year. During the next years, Beckenbauer perfected his interpretation of the “libero” role, the attacking sweeper, which was previously interpreted by players like Joncquet or Santamaria. Through Beckenbauer`s interpretation, the sweeper position reached a whole new dimension, for his interpretation was genuine and near to perfection. Beckenbauer changed the picture most people had of German football, from fighting, ruthless, rigid physical style to a more playful, creative, finesse style by interjecting his own elegant way of play, coupled with superior technical skills. He “played” football, instead of “working” football. His technical abilities allowed him to introduce a new style of defending that didn`t have to rely on tough tackling, but on supreme ball trickery and outdribbling of the opposing forwards. Coupled with his well-timed, incredibly accurate long and short range passes (usually played with the outside of his foot), and his overall elegant, seemingly effortless way of playing, Beckenbauer was a new sort of defender, a number 10 playing in central defense, so to speak.

With his club Bayern Munich, he won his first European Cup in 1967, beating Glasgow Rangers 1-0 in the Cup Winners’ Cup final in Nuremberg. 1969 would be Bayern`s most successful year to that date, winning both the league as well as the Cup, and only becoming the second club in German football history to win the double. The 1970 World Cup saw Franz still playing as a midfielder for West Germany, despite his great performances for Bayern as a libero and also for West Germany during a 1968 South American tour, when Beckenbauer was playing libero for the first time for Germany in the game against Brazil, due to Willi Schulz’s injury. Beckenbauer played the central part in a midfield consisting of Wolfgang Overath on the left and veteran centre forward Uwe Seeler excelling in the unused role of right midfielder and support striker. Together with Overath and Müller, Beckenbauer was the dominating player in Germany`s 1970 World Cup, and some argue Beckenbauer`s handicap through injury was the main reason why they lost to Italy in the spectacular semi final which the Azzurri won 4-3 in extra time. The third place match against Urugay (1-0) would be the last game West Germany would have to play without Beckenbauer for the next seven years. 1971 and 1972 were to become crucial years for both Beckenbauer and West Germany. In 1971, Helmut Schön finally decided to let Franz take the libero position for good (after Schulz had ended his international career in 1970 and Schnellinger being absent too often due to his engagement with Milan). Franz also ended up as the West Germany captain after Wolfgang Overath (who took over from Uwe Seeler in 1970) got injured for a long period. In 1971-72, the West German “Nationalmannschaft” undoubtly reached its pinnacle. Never before or after has a German team played such adventurous and flairful football, beating Poland in Warsaw 3-1, England at Wembley 3-1 (European Championship quarterfinals), Belgium 2-1 in Brussels (Euro semi final), the USSR 4-1 in Munich and 3-0 in Brussels (Euro final), as well as Mexico 5-0 and Switzerland 5-1. Their style during the early seventies was often referred to as a more realistic approach towards “Total Football” than the much-fancied Dutch version. Franz Beckenbauer and Borussia Mönchengladbach`s Günter Netzer were at the heart of this team, with ultimate goal poacher Gerd Müller being in sublime form as well. Thanks to his supreme performances, Beckenbauer won the European Golden Ball for the first time, he went on to win it for a second time in 1976 (Beckenbauer is the only player to have featured in the top 10 Golden Ball poll for 11 years in a row, coming out second in 1974 and 1975). Bayern ended runners-up in the Bundeslige twice behind Borussia Mönchengladbach (the other dominat force in German club football throughout the 1970s) in 1970 and 1971, but in the 1971-72 season, Bayern set out to break almost all existing Bundesliga records: the first and only team to ever score more than 100 goals (101 in 34 games), the highest number of wins in one season (25), and the highest number of points (55-13). The following season, Bayern were to dominate the Bundesliga even more, winning the league with a 13 points lead over the second-place Cologne team.

Beckenbauer and in fact Bayern`s and West Germany`s biggest year was yet to come, though. In 1974, Bayern went on to win the Bundesliga for a third straight time (new record), they also won the European Champions Cup for the first time and then Franz and five other Bayern players also won the World Cup! It doesn`t get much bigger than that for a player, but Franz was also the captain in all those wins and the most instrumental player, who took over the charge of Germany manager informally from Helmut Schön after the infamous 0-1 loss against East Germany in the early World Cup group stages. Franz took the command, threw established players out of the team (among them Bayern teammate Uli Hoeness) and brought in fresh players like Rainer Bonhof. Unlike some of his teammates, Beckenbauer himself excelled during the whole tournament, convincing not only in the technique department but also as a fighter and tackler, ultimately leading Germany to a 2-1 win in the Munich final against the fancied Dutch led by Johan Cruijff (taking revenge for the 0-4 thrashing of Bayern by Ajax in the EC1 quartefinal in 1972/73). After this tremendously successful season, Bayern not unexpectedly went downhill, struggling against relegation in the Bundesliga, but due to an energetic exertion by Beckenbauer and Sepp Maier in goal, Bayern went on to defend its continental title in 1975 against Leeds United (2-0) in Paris. They won the European Cup for a third straight time in 1976 (beating AS St. Etienne 1-0 in Glasgow), but this would remain Bayern`s last international triumph for the next 20 years as the Bayern era was now coming to an end. West Germany went on to reach the final of the European Championships in 1976, after a dramatic semi final win over hosts Yugoslavia (4-2 in extra time), but the final was lost in the first ever penalty shoot-out for national teams against the CSSR of Nehoda, Panenka, Viktor, Ondrus and Masny. 1976-77 was possibly Beckenbauer`s strongest ever year, playing extremely well in almost all competitive matches.

He was expected to lead West Germany to the World Cup in 1978, but due to difficulties in his private life, which was exploited mercilessly by the tabloids, Beckenbauer accepted an offer by New York Cosmos in April 1977, where he was planned to substitute Pelé, who was about to end his career in October. This change to Cosmos in fact also quite aprubtly ended Beckenbauer`s international career, as players playing outside of Germany were not considered to be called up (especially if they were playing on another continent!). Beckenbauer scored a goal in his first match for Cosmos (a 2-4 defeat against Tampa Bay), but the team he found himself playing in seemed to be lacking a concept and the difference of quality between the players was striking. World class players met players of amateur level, almost. For Cosmos, Franz used to play in midfield most of the time, and his performances were so convincing that he won the “NASL Most Valuable Player 1977” in his first U.S. season. Other players starring for Cosmos at that time were Italy`s Giorgio Chinaglia, Brazil’s Carlos Alberto Torres and Peru`s Ramon Mifflin. With the arrival of new manager Eddie Firmani, Cosmos’ approach became more professional and this showed in the NASL championship. Cosmos won the NASL in 1977 by beating the Seattle Sounders 2-1 and repeated this triumph in 1978 by beating the Tampa Bay Rowdies 3-1. In April 1979 he was severely injured for the first time in 12 years and was sidelined for two months. But before and after his injury, he played so strongly that he made the NASL ‘All-Star Team’ for a third time in a row. Despite Beckenbauer`s good form, 1979 turnt out to be the least successful year for him while he was in America, with Cosmos losing the semi final in the NASL Championship against the Vancouver Whitecaps. Cosmos was back on track in 1980, though, winning the NASL for a third time with a 3-0 win against the Fort Lauderdale Strikers (who featured Beckenbauer`s old buddy Gerd Müller as well as Peruvian legend Teofilo Cubillas). At that time, Cosmos starred players like Carlos Alberto Torres, Giorgio Chinaglia, Julio Romero, Johan Neeskens, Wim Rijsbergen, Vladislav Bogicevic and Angelo di Bernado. But despite all his success in the NASL, in September of 1980 Beckenbauer accepted the offer of Hamburg SV managing director Günter Netzer to come back to Germany playing for Hamburg in the Bundesliga. He was already 35 years of age and this posed certainly quite a challenge to even as fine a player as Beckenbauer. For Hamburg, he got back to play in his precious libero position once more, finishing runners-up behind Bayern in the 1980-81 season. In 1982 he was plagued by injury and thus only took part in 15 matches for Hamburg, who went on to win the German league and also reached the UEFA-Cup final (losing against Göteborg without Beckenbauer). His farewell match took place in May 1982, but he was still fit enough to accept an offer by Cosmos in 1983 and went on to play one final year for them. In 1984, Beckenbauer became “Teamchef” of the German national team, leading them to the 1986 World Cup final (losing 2-3 against Maradona`s Argentina), the 1988 Euro semi final (losing 1-2 against van Basten and Gullit`s Holland), before leading West Germany to a third World Cup win in Italy against Argentina (1-0) in 1990. Beckenbauer thus became only the second man to win the World Cup both as player and as manager. He also enjoyed success as a club manager in the 1990s, winning the Bundesliga with Bayern in 1994 and the UEFA-Cup in 1996 (Bayern`s first international title in 20 years). At the same time, he was also Bayern`s club president, which he still is today. His latest laurels include the 2006 World Cup being staged by Germany, being very instrumental in the campaign.


League Statistics per Season

Season - Club - Games – Goals [ Caps / Goals ]
1964/65 Bayern Munich.....Second Division
1965/66 Bayern Munich.............33 / 04 [14 / 7 ]
1966/67 Bayern Munich.............33 / 00 [ 4 / 0 ]
1967/68 Bayern Munich.............28 / 04 [ 6 / 1 ]
1968/69 Bayern Munich.............33 / 02 [ 8 / 0 ]
1969/70 Bayern Munich.............34 / 06 [11 / 1 ]
1970/71 Bayern Munich.............33 / 03 [10 / 3 ]
1971/72 Bayern Munich.............34 / 06 [ 9 / 0 ]
1972/73 Bayern Munich.............34 / 06 [ 6 / 1 ]
1973/74 Bayern Munich.............34 / 04 [17 / 0 ]
1974/75 Bayern Munich.............33 / 01 [ 6 / 0 ]
1975/76 Bayern Munich.............34 / 05 [ 9 / 0 ]
1976/77 Bayern Munich.............33 / 03 [ 3 / 1 ]
1977.... New York Cosmos.........21 / 05
1978.... New York Cosmos.........33 / 10
1979.... New York Cosmos.........18 / 01
1980.... New York Cosmos.........33 / 05
1980/81 Hamburger SV.............18 / 00
1981/82 Hamburger SV.............10 / 00
1983.... New York Cosmos.........27 / 02

International Club Games

1966/67 Bayern Munich.....EC II........09 / 00
1967/68 Bayern Munich.....EC II........07 / 01
1969/70 Bayern Munich.....EC I.........02 / 00
1970/71 Bayern Munich.....UEFA Cup..08 / 01
1971/72 Bayern Munich.....EC II........07 / 00
1972/73 Bayern Munich.....EC I.........06 / 01
1973/74 Bayern Munich.....EC I.........10 / 01
1974/75 Bayern Munich.....EC I.........07 / 01
1975/76 Bayern Munich.....EC I.........09 / 00
1976/77 Bayern Munich.....EC I.........06 / 01
1980/81 Hamburger SV......UEFA.......00 / 00
1981/82 Hamburger SV......UEFA.......05 / 00

 

Thanks for that picture.

I have a pretty rare Franz and Gerd pic from 1976 in their Bayern uniforms, rare because the two are re-enacting the Frazier-Ali fight from 1971! I have no scanner otherwise I would have posted it here long ago, but I will enclose a black-and-white copy of that pic in the next package of games.