The German football federation (DFB) reports that revolutionary soccer player Franz Beckenbauer, who was one of the few persons to win the World Cup as both a player and a coach, passed away at the age of 78. Known by his nickname “Der Kaiser” (The Emperor), Beckenbauer is considered one of the greatest soccer players of all time. He is recognized for creating the soccer position known as the “sweeper” and is the first defender in history to win the coveted Ballon d’Or twice, in 1972 and 1976. In 2007, England great Bobby Charlton told FourFourTwo magazine, “Franz was a marvelous distributor of the ball, a great tackler, he always had control of a situation and he never panicked.” Apart from his World Cup victories with West Germany at the time, Beckenbauer also captained
Born to play for Bayern
Beckenbauer was born on September 11, 1945, in Bavaria in the immediate aftermath of World War II.
Though he would go on to become a Bayern icon, Beckenbauer grew up supporting local rivals 1860 Munich, like the majority of residents in Giesing, the town where he grew up, according to the Bundesliga.
Nevertheless, he joined Bayern’s youth ranks in the late 1950s and made his senior debut five years later, initially playing as a left winger.
The team earned promotion to the Bundesliga in 1965 and won the German Cup in 1966 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 1967. Beckenbauer took over the captaincy the following year and guided the side to its first ever Bundesliga title in the 1968–69 campaign.
