He was 18 years old when Franz Beckenbauer, a fan of Munich 1860 as a child, made his debut with Bayern in the second division in 1964. The legend started from the bottom but soon rose to the Bundesliga and reached the highest levels. Little by little. He won a Cup and then a Cup Winners’ Cup, before lifting four German leagues and three consecutive European Cups.
In the same way as before becoming world champion, he suffered disappointments on the pitch. He lost the 1966 final against England and was left without a final in Mexico after losing 4-3 with Italy in the so-called match of the century. The Kaiser played extra time, in which five goals were scored at the Azteca, with his arm in a sling.
Eliminated a year earlier by Cruyff’s Ajax, the first of those three continental finals had Atlético de Madrid as its victim in 1974. The final in Brussels ended with a 1-1 draw after 120 minutes. In that last minute, Schwarzenbeck neutralized Luis Aragonés’ goal to take the game to a tiebreaker. Two days later the Bavarians had no mercy on the colchoneros.
That same summer, Germany organized the 1974 World Cup and although the Netherlands took all the praise, the victory in the final on July 7 in Munich went to the hosts. It was a duel of styles, German efficiency against the aesthetics of a clockwork orange. Beckenbauer, as captain, collected and lifted the trophy.
The Kaiser played five games against Spain, between 1966 and 1976, two of them friendly, one in Sarrià, in which Asensi gave the locals the victory. The first time Beckenbauer frustrated Spain was in the 1966 World Cup when both teams were placed in the same group 2 in the first phase. In the third match, at Villa Park, the Spanish needed to win to avoid being eliminated after losing to Argentina and defeating Switzerland. And although Josep Maria Fusté put the Spanish team ahead, the Germans ended their hopes by coming back in the game. Seeler, in ’84, made it 2-1 for a team where Beckenbauer, at 20 years old, was already a leader of a team that lost the final against the host England.
Later came the quarter-final tie of the 1976 Euro Cup. The red team, led by Kubala, crossed paths with the current world champion to enter the final phase for the title and hit a wall. Beckenbauer was on his way to his third consecutive European Cup.
The first leg was played on April 24 at the Vicente Calderón and although Spain took the lead after 21 minutes through Santillana, Erich Beer equalized at the hour mark. Everything would be decided at the Olympic Stadium in Munich, where the first half would be enough for Hoeness and Toppmoller to knock out the Spaniards.
Before Leo Messi, David Beckham, Henry or Ibrahimovic, there were other great stars who came to soccer in the United States. At the beginning of the eighties, Pelé and Beckenbauer, who were beginning to succeed as football entrepreneurs, met at the New York Cosmos.
With no experience other than his background as a player, Beckenbauer took charge of the national team as coach and in 1990 won the World Cup from the bench by beating Maradona’s Argentina. It was a revenge for what happened four years earlier, when in Mexico, the albiceleste left him with honey on his lips. The Kaiser retaliated in Rome. Also in Italy, this time in Milan, Bayern won the Champions League in 2001 under his presidency.
