Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer, one of soccer’s greatest players who captained his country to World Cup glory in 1974 and won the tournament again as manager in 1990, has died at the age of 78, his family said in a statement on Monday.

Beckenbauer bestrode the sport as player, coach, pundit and administrator for more than half a century and was widely admired around the world.

Joshua Kimmich of FC Bayern Munich shakes hands with Bayern legend Franz Beckenbauer on 12 May 2018 in Munich, Germany. (Photo: Boris Streubel / Getty Images)

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” read a statement from his family.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on X: “World Cup winner as player and coach: Franz Beckenbauer was one of the greatest footballers in Germany and for many ‘der Kaiser’ also because of the excitement for German football he created for generations. We will miss him. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Classy

Beckenbauer was a classy, dominant presence on the pitch for West Germany and Bayern Munich in the 1960s and ’70s, using a calmness on the ball and effortless distribution that marked his midfield performances to virtually invent the central defensive sweeper role where he found most success.

West Germany captain Franz Beckenbauer, No 5, shakes hands with the East Germany captain before a match. (Photo: Allsport UK /Allsport)

He earned 103 caps for West Germany, winning the 1972 European Championship and then the World Cup on home soil two years later, having lost in the final to England in 1966.

In 1970 he famously played for much of the classic World Cup semifinal against Italy with his arm in a sling, having dislocated his shoulder and broken his collarbone.

His Bayern team were the best club side in the world during the mid-1970s, winning three successive European Cups and three straight Bundesliga titles, and Beckenbauer was twice named European Footballer of the Year.

He then made a controversial move to the United States, joining the “all-star” New York Cosmos team, which he helped to three domestic titles before returning to Germany and helping Hamburg to the Bundesliga crown. 

He became the national team coach in 1984 despite having no previous experience and led West Germany to the 1986 World Cup final where they lost to Argentina.

Beckenbauer surprised German football when he took up a lucrative contract with the New York Cosmos team in the fledgling North American Soccer League in 1977. (Photo: Allsport UK / Allsport)

Four years later, he led a combined Germany team to victory in the final over Argentina.

Beckenbauer was one of three men to have won the World Cup as a player and then coach and his death comes three days after the first to do it – Brazil’s Mario Zagallo. France’s Didier Deschamps is the other.

Lothar Matthaeus, Beckenbauer’s victorious captain at Italia 90, said: “The shock is deep, even though I knew that Franz wasn’t well. His death is a loss for football and for Germany as a whole.

“He was one of the greatest as a player and coach, but also off the pitch. Franz was an outstanding personality not only in football, and he enjoyed worldwide recognition. Everyone who knew him knows what a great and generous person Franz was.”

Beckenbauer tasted more domestic success as manager and then club president at Bayern before becoming vice president of the German FA, playing a key role in Germany’s successful bid to host the 2006 World Cup.

However, in 2016 he was fined by the ethics committee of world soccer’s governing body, Fifa, for failing to cooperate with an inquiry into corruption over the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups.

Then Fifa President Sepp Blatter (left) and German representative Franz Beckenbauer (right) at the announcement of the winning bid for the 2006 World Cup in Zurich, Switzerland. The German bid won, receiving 12 votes, from South Africa’s 11, with one abstention. (Photo: Ben Radford / Allsport)

Another Fifa inquiry into his actions regarding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup was dropped without any charges being made due to a statute of limitations issue.

Beckenbauer, who had been battling several health issues in recent years, denied any wrongdoing in the Fifa scandals and largely withdrew from the public eye.

Revolutionised the role

“Der Kaiser”, was for decades synonymous with Germany’s success on the pitch, first as player and then as coach.

He amassed every major honour in his glittering playing career and continued his extraordinary record of success after switching to the manager’s bench.

At club level he steered Bayern Munich to three successive European Cup victories from 1974 to 1976 and won the World Club Cup, the European Cup Winners’ Cup and eight domestic trophies – four league titles and four cup triumphs.

He was West Germany’s Footballer of the Year a record four times and twice European Footballer of the Year.

Widely regarded as one of the greatest soccer players of all time, and by many as the best European, as a player he invented and defined the modern libero role.

Always calm under pressure and a skilful marshal of his defence, Beckenbauer could read the game so astutely he knew exactly the right moment to surge upfield.

The unhurried sweeper never seemed to break a sweat as he sprayed perfect, raking passes to his strikers.

From player to coach

Born in Munich on 11 September 1945, Beckenbauer, a postal official’s son who once trained to be an insurance salesman, joined Bayern’s youth teams in 1959.

He progressed to the first team and, with Beckenbauer orchestrating from midfield, Bayern rocketed to international prominence from the obscurity of West German regional league soccer to establish the most powerful brand in German football.

Shortly after his 20th birthday, Beckenbauer was capped for the first time in a World Cup qualifier against Sweden and became a fixture in the national team for more than a decade.

Beckenbauer retired to a comfortable life at his home in the Austrian ski resort of Kitzbühel, spending much of his time on the local golf course.

But he kept in the public eye with a regular column in West Germany’s mass-circulation Bild newspaper and eventually took over as Germany’s coach despite his lack of managerial experience. Reuters/DM