Football legend Franz Beckenbauer dies
One of the most important figures in German football has died: Franz Beckenbauer passed away on Sunday aged 78. The "Kaiser" inspired with his unique elegance and lightness, won numerous championship titles as a player and coach, and brought the 2006 World Cup to Germany. Commentators look back on his career.
The libero icon
As a player Franz Beckenbauer changed football permanently, The Guardian recalls:
“He was handsome, charismatic and languid, a player of effortless elegance guaranteed to enrage those who believed the game was about industry, sweat and graft. He was technically gifted. He saw things others didn't. He had grace and intelligence. From his teens it was obvious Beckenbauer would be a player of the highest level. But in what position? Nobody could work it out. And so he effectively invented a role for himself. Beckenbauer is now considered the great example of the libero. ... As a player, by being who he was, without having to conceptualise it, he had changed the way the game was played. He emerged as a player out of time, and made football conform to him.”
Football world impoverished
The sports newspaper Gazeta Sporturilor is saddened:
“In addition to the German national team, Beckenbauer was also associated with FC Bayern Munich throughout his life, for which he was a player, manager and finally president. It is justified to speak of a Beckenbauer era and Beckenbauer school, like those established by [Dutch footballer Hendrik 'Johan'] Cruyff in Barcelona and beyond. Both developed football, enriched it. ... With the Kaiser's death - coming after the deaths of Cruyff in 2016, Maradona in 2020 and Pelé in 2022 - football has become poorer. A world has ended, or is about to end.”
On a par with statesmen
According to the Aargauer Zeitung, Beckenbauer was forgiven almost everything:
“Beckenbauer shone beyond football. Socially, he was on a par with German presidents and chancellors, captains of industry and show celebrities. ... His star shone so brightly that even his missteps were forgiven. Married three times, five children by three wives, one illegitimate. And all this in ultra-Catholic Bavaria? No problem. Tax evasion in the 1970s? Quickly forgotten. ... It was only the scandal over buying votes for the 2006 World Cup that drew criticism. His life's work was not permanently tarnished.”
He gave the Germans lightness
For the Kurier, Beckenbauer was a master at taking the heaviness out of life:
“In the hundreds of video clips currently flickering across the internet, you can see a man who achieved something that could hardly have been more difficult: Franz Beckenbauer, the Kaiser, gave the Germans lightness. And even off the pitch, the Bavarian worker's son who had become a citizen of the world knew how to take the heaviness out of almost every moment. That is indeed a major achievement!”