Two Banks of Four | A Student's Eye on the World of Football

Germany: land of sausages, lederhosens, beer. The national football team are three-times winners of the World Cup, three-times winners of the European Championships and third in the FIFA world rankings. They’re ruthless, efficient and exciting. But amongst the elite, stands one man. He’s as much the pure embodiment of the values of German football as any other. He stands perhaps tallest in the upper echelons of a great sporting nation; a monarch of the game, you could say. Elegant yet authoritative in his playing days, a serene virtuoso in retirement. He’s ‘Der Kaiser’.

 

There are only two men in the history of the game to have won the World Cup as both a player and a manager. Brazil’s Mario Zagallo, twice a winner as a player- in 1958 and 1962- also coached Pele, Carlos Alberto and Jairzinho to the 1970 crown. While Zagallo’s achievements are no less impressive than Beckenbauer’s, it’s worth noting that ‘Der Kaiser’ won the World Cup as the captain of West Germany: their on-the-pitch leader.

 

And that World Cup win, in 1974, will be forever known for the final. The tournament, held in West Germany, marked the first time the current World Cup Trophy- created by the Italian sculptor Silvio Gazzaniga- was awarded. The Jules Rimet Trophy, had been won for the third time by Zagallo’s Brazil in 1970 and was awarded permanently to the Brazilians for their hat-trick of historic triumphs.

The story of the ’74 World Cup final has already been told on this blog, in the piece written about one of Beckenbauer’s opponent in that game, Johan Cruyff.

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“He was the puppet master, standing back and pulling the strings which earned West Germany and Bayern Munich every major prize.”

- Keir Radnedge in Soccer: The Ultimate Encyclopaedia -

 

But, having been born just days after the end of World War II, and growing up on the streets of post-war Munich, Beckenbauer’s childhood was a troubled one for an aspiring footballer. With hardly any pitches to play on, nor many organised teams for children, Der Kaiser would often have to do with rocks or balls of paper as makeshift footballs. “But things got better in the 1950s,” he told FourFourTwo in the October issue of the popular magazine, “we used basement windows as goals and played with tennis balls.”

 

Having got a job as a clerk to garner some income in an uncertain economical climate, Beckenbauer signed his first professional contract in 1963, a year before the birth of the Bundesliga. Signing for a then Second Division Bayern Munich, Beckenbauer impressed as a youth prospect and was soon in the first team. In his debut for Bayern Munich in 1964, Beckenbauer played on the left wing, and in his first season, helped Bayern to promotion to Germany’s top-flight; the newly-formed Bundesliga. Promotion with Bayern in that ’64-’65 season was his first success in German domestic football, but by no means his last. In fact, he went on to win the Bundesliga title five times and the DFB Cup four times.

 

But perhaps even more surprising is the fact the year following that first domestic success, in 1966, Beckenbauer was playing in a World Cup final – which, as we all know, took place in London’s Wembley Stadium.

 

“I’ve never been upset about what happened in 1966. After 120 minutes of chasing, I was just happy when it was over.”

- Franz Beckenbauer in Issue 208 of FourFourTwo -

 

Remarkably, in Der Kaiser’s first ever appearance at a World Cup he scored twice in a 5-0 win for West Germany, against Switzerland at Hillsborough. Those two goals were followed by two more, in his side’s Quarter-final and Semi-final wins over Uruguay and the Soviet Union respectively. Four goals for the tournament had him as joint-third top-goalscorer overall, with only one Englishman matching that total: Geoff Hurst. All this, from a sweeper.

 

In the fabled final of ’66, Beckenbauer was given the task of man-marking a 21-year-old Bobby Charlton, a man which the Germans openly admitted to having a fear of. Beckenbauer himself told reporters that England were victorious because Charlton was just that little bit better than himself – he made not mention of any debatable goal-line decision, mind.

 

Back in Germany the domestic honours were raining down on a dominant Bayern Munich, who were swiftly becoming a force to be reckoned with. They won the West German Cup in both 1966 and 1967 and later that year won the first of their European trophies, the Cup Winners’ Cup, by beating Glasgow Rangers 1-0. Beckenbauer was confirmed their actual on the field leader in the 1968-69 season when he was handed the Bayern captaincy, and in his first season with the armband, Bayern won their first ever Bundesliga title – only their second German title ever, the first in four decades.

The great Bayern team, which featured goalkeeping legend Sepp Maier and a young centre-forward by the name of Gerd Muller, a striker who was to terrify England, becoming known as Der Bomber.

Of course this strong Bayern outfit also made up a big portion of the West German side too, who, in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico reached the semi-finals, having gained revenge over England with a 2-1 – in which Beckenbauer scored a goal.

Brian Glanville describes what happened in this game his book, The Story of the World Cup: “Beckenbauer advanced, picked up a rebound, and sent a low, right-footed unexceptional shot towards the left-hand corner. Bonetti went down too late, the ball ran under his dive, and the score was 2-1.It is significant, given the subsequent theory that all went awry when Charlton departed, thus allowing Beckenbauer to come forward, that Beckenbauer scored his vital goal before Charlton was replaced.”

Revenge for that World Cup Final defeat was indeed sweet for the Germans. But the joy was not to last. Despite their exhausting efforts against England, they were to be beaten in extra time by Italy, an extra time period in which Beckenbauer played with his arm in a sling.

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“German football is not about magic and beauty, it’s about hard work.”

- Franz Beckenbauer -

 

In 1971 Der Kaiser was made captain of his country and in the following year’s European Championships, West Germany won the trophy, beating the Soviet Union 3-0 in the final. Beckenbauer was voted European Footballer of the Year that year, as his glory years really started to take shape.

Under his captaincy, Bayern won three straight Bundesliga titles and three successive European Cups – notably beating Don Revie’s Leeds United 2-0 in 1975. If they weren’t before Bayern were by now, the best club side in Europe and more so, the world.

He was voted European Footballer of the Year for the second time after that hat-trick of European Cups in 1976, even though West Germany lost that year’s European Championship Final to Czechoslovakia in a penalty shoot-out. By then, Beckenbauer had won a record 103 caps for West Germany and in 1977, he accepted a $2.5 million contract to play for the New York Cosmos in the North American Soccer League (NASL). He stayed for four years in which the Cosmos won the Soccer Bowl three times. Success, it would seem, just followed the man.

 

However, he briefly returned to Germany to play for Hamburg – winning the Bundesliga again! – before spending one final season with the Cosmos, retiring from his playing career in 1984.

That year he was appointed the West German national manager, despite no previous experience in coaching, as a successor to Jupp Derwall. His apprenticeship was served gaining qualification for the 1986 World Cup in Mexico where he astonished everyone by taking a somewhat ordinary team to the final in which they lost 3-2 to a Maradona-led Argentina.

Italia 90 was different, however. Beckenbauer now had a united German side capable of going all the way. Once again it was England who were blocking his way, a 1-1 draw in the semi-final bringing about the drama of that penalty shoot-out in which Stuart Pearce and Chris Waddle missed to give Beckenbauer managerial victory over his rival Bobby Robson.

The final – as in 1986 against Argentina – was a sterile affair, a penalty being enough to ensure the trophy for the Germans. Beckenbauer had made history with a unique World Cup double.

After the headiness of international immortality, Beckenbauer moved into club management as coach at Olympique Marseilles. It was a brief and unsuccessful spell. He returned to Bayern as coach in 1994, guiding them to the Bundesliga title before moving upstairs as the club president.

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Retirement didn’t stop the honours, though. In 1999, Beckenbauer was voted in second place, behind Johan Cruyff, in the European player of the Century election held by the IFFHS and he was also voted third, behind Pelé and Cruyff, in the IFFHS’ “World Player of the Century” election.

 

“Wherever Franz Beckenbauer appears, people do not just recognise him – they worship him.”

- German FA Secretary General Wolfgang Niersbach -

 

Beckenbauer has often been credited by many as redefining and perhaps even inventing the defensive ‘libero’ role: a player, deep enough to be a sweeper, and one that not only defends but also has a free role to roam forward. As one of the most decorated footballers of all time, having won the Ballon d’Or in 1972 and 1976, Der Kaiser is widely regarded as the greatest of the German footballers to have taken to the field.