Franz Beckenbauer: World Cup winner and German football legend dies aged 78

Germany legend and World Cup winning-player and manager Franz Beckenbauer has died at the age of 78, his family have confirmed.

‘Der Kaiser’ won 103 caps for West Germany during a glittering career, while he played at senior club level for Bayern Munich between 1964 and 1977.

He then moved to New York Cosmos, before returning to Germany for a two-year stint with Hamburg, and then returning to New York in 1983.

A family statement on Monday read: “It is with deep sadness that we inform you that my husband and our father Franz Beckenbauer fell asleep peacefully yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family.

“We ask that you mourn in silence and refrain from asking any questions.”

He was named European Footballer of the Year twice, and played in three World Cups – including the triumphant 1974 team – and two European Championships. He also managed Germany to World Cup glory in 1990.

Beckenbauer made his debut for Bayern curiously on the left wing in 1964, in a Bundesliga promotion play-off against St Pauli.

After becoming a mainstay in the side, Beckenbauer, in his new ‘libero’ role, earned himself the captaincy in Bavaria, and he lead Bayern to three league titles in a row between 1972 and 1974, and three consecutive European Cups between 1974 and 1976.

He lifted the World Cup in 1974 as captain of West Germany, having finished as runner-up and in third place in 1966 and 1970, and he won the 1972 European Championships as part an almost impenetrable West German defence.

After his retirement in 1983 – where he had made 754 competitive club appearances – he stepped into management the following year, taking the reins of West Germany from Jupp Derwall.

In the 1986 World Cup, Beckenbauer’s side reached the final, downed only by a Diego Maradona-driven Argentina.

He lifted the trophy four years later in 1990, as the last manager to oversee a West German side before reunification, and with that success, he became one of only two men at the time to have won the World Cup as a player and a manager, with Mario Zagallo his only predecessor. France’s Didier Deschamps has since joined the exclusive club.

He moved into club management with Marseille in 1990, staying for just a year, before two short stints in charge of Bayern between 1993 and 1996, where he won the 1994 Bundesliga and the 1996 UEFA Cup.

In 1994, he became the club’s president, and stepped down in 2009. Alongside that role, he became Vice-President of the German Football Association (DFB) and was a lead figure in securing Germany as the host nation for the 2006 World Cup.