![]() ![]() First World Cup Finalĭuring the World Cup in 1966, which England hosted, Beckenbauer scored four goals. Beckenbauer started at the outside left forward position, but soon moved to midfield, and his play helped spark the West Germans to a 2-1 qualifying victory in the 1966 World Cup over Sweden. The Bundesliga-Bayern had not been admitted when the Bundesliga (German soccer league) was formed in 1963. His arrival at the parent Bayern Munich club coincided with its ascension into the German elite league. Within three years, he surrendered his job as an insurance salesman trainee to pursue professional soccer. Joined Bayern as a Teenīeckenbauer was born in war-torn Munich in 1945, and joined with the youth team at Bayern Munich at age 14. "He was the puppet master, standing back and pulling the strings which earned West Germany and Bayern Munich every major prize," he explains further. But more than that, he was a great thinker about the game and brought about a revolution in the way it is played by inventing the role of the attacking sweeper." Keir Radnedge wrote in The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Soccer. Play that suggested he was always in command-'Emperor Franz' and 'The Kaiser," they called him. "Every movement he made on the pitch bristled with elegance," the International Football Hall of Fame wrote of Beckenbauer. But there was an air about Beckenbauer that transcended championships. He is also president of the organizing committee for the 2006 World Cup to be hosted in Germany.īeckenbauer, credited with popularizing the "sweeper" defensive position and using it as a mode of counterattack, was also captain of the former West Germany's national team when it won the European Championship, and led Bayern Munich to three successive European Cups and the European Cup Winners' Cup. Beckenbauer, who also played for the New York Cosmos when soccer interest in the United States began to rise in the mid-to-late seventies, is now president of one of Europe's top teams, Bayern Munich, after a successful stretch for that team as player, coach and general manager. Beckenbauer captained the former West Germany to the championship in 1974, and coached it to the top in 1990. Franz Beckenbauer is the only person who has won soccer's World Cup as team captain and as coach. ![]()
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