Franz Beckenbauer (born September 11, 1945) is the most famous German football player, coach and manager, nicknamed der Kaiser ("the emperor") because of his elegant style, his leadership qualities and his domination on the football pitch. Beckenbauer is often credited as having invented the role of the modern sweeper or libero, and he is the only player to have won the World Cup and the European Championships both as a captain and a coach (Brazil's former striker Zagallo has also coached his country to the cup, but he never captained his side). Beckenbauer is considered to be one of the greatest footballers of all time along with the likes of Maradona, Pelé and Cruyff. He wore the number 5 most frequently, as well as the number 6 for the Cosmos. Beckenbauer was arguably the world's most famous defender.

He is married to Heidi Burmester.

Managerial career

On his return to Germany he was appointed manager of the national side to replace the lacklustre Jupp Derwall and he took the team all the way to the final of the World Cup 1986 where they lost to Argentina.

In 1990 Beckenbauer managed the last West German team in a World Cup before the reunification, winning the final with a victory over Argentina. He is one of two men (with Mario Zagallo) to have won the cup as player and as coach.

Beckenbauer then moved into club management, and accepted a job with Olympique Marseille in 1990 but left them the following year. From 28 December 1993 until 30 June 1994, and then from 29 April 1996 until 30 June of the same year, he coached Bayern Munich. His brief spells in charge saw him collect two further honours - the Bundesliga title in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996. In 1994 he had taken on the role of club president at Bayern, and much of the Munich giants' success in the following years has been credited to his astute management. Following the club's decision to change from an association to a limited company, he has been chairman of the advisory board since the beginning of 2002.

In 1998 he became vice-president of the DFB. Beckenbauer is considered one of the best players of all time. In 2004 he was voted the second best European player in the past 50 years in the UEFA Golden Jubilee Poll.

More recently, Beckenbauer has headed the successful bid by Germany to organize the World Cup in 2006. He is now chairman of the organization committee for the World Cup and commentator for the Bild-Zeitung. He intends to visit 48 of the 64 games, flying from stadium to stadium in a helicopter.

Trivia

• Beckenbauer's digital image was reproduced for Adidas's José+10 football advertisement. The ad shows a young-looking Beckenbauer from the 1970s playing with contemporary greats like Zinedine Zidane, David Beckham, Steven Gerrard, Frank Lampard, Kaká, Jermaine Defoe, Oliver Kahn, Michael Ballack, Juan Román Riquelme, Arjen Robben, Lukas Podolski, Raul Gonzalez, and Djibril Cissé. The ad shows Beckenbauer wearing the West German 1974 World Cup jersey which he wore number 5. This is the same jersey he is wearing when he was the first player to hoist the FIFA World Cup Trophy. The ad also digitally reproduces the image of French great Michel Platini.

• While playing with the youth team of SC Munich 1906 Beckenbauer was a supporter of the Bayern Munich city rival 1860 Munich and intended to join the club in 1958. But after a game with his youth team a player of 1860 Munich slapped him in his face. Upset about this he changed his plans and instead of joining the "Blues", which had been the more popular team at this time in Munich, Beckenbauer joined the "Reds".

Honours

CLUB

Bayern Munich

• Bundesliga - 1969, 1972, 1973, 1974
• German Cup - 1966, 1967, 1969, 1971
• European Champions Cup - 1974, 1975, 1976
• European Cup Winners Cup - 1967
• World Club Championship - 1976

Hamburger SV

• Bundesliga - 1982

New York Cosmos

• US Championship - 1977, 1978, 1980

INTERNATIONAL

• FIFA World Cup - 1974
• European Championship - 1972

MANAGERIAL

• FIFA World Cup - 1990
• Bundesliga - 1994
• UEFA Cup - 1996