2024-01-08T17:11:15+00:00
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/ The German Football Association announced today, Monday, the death of German football legend “Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer, the world champion as a player in 1974 and as a coach in 1990, on Sunday at the age of 78.
Beckenbauer, captain of the West Germany national team in the 1970s, coach of Die Mannschaft between 1984 and 1990 and former manager of Bayern Munich in the 1990s, has withdrawn from public life in recent years due to health problems.
Beckenbauer was a strong presence on the pitch with the West German national team and Bayern Munich, with whom he won the European Cup three times in a row, and he was nicknamed the Kaiser.
“It is with great sadness that we announce that my husband and father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” the family said, according to the Bild newspaper website. “We hope that there will be the ability to mourn in silence and refrain from asking any questions.”
Lothar Matthaus, the former captain of world players and winner of the 1990 World Cup, expressed his shock at Beckenbauer’s death and said, according to Bild:
“His death is a loss for football and for Germany as a whole. He was one of the greatest as a player and coach, but also off the pitch. Franz was a prominent figure not only in football, but he enjoyed worldwide recognition. Everyone who knew him knows what a great and generous person Franz was. A good friend has left us. I will miss him – we will all miss him!”