“Then I see Franz sitting there”
Lothar Matthäus speaks emotionally about Beckenbauer
12/25/2024 – 1:19 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Franz Beckenbauer died almost a year ago. Now Lothar Matthäus has once again emotionally remembered the emperor.
It is the first Christmas without Germany’s greatest footballer. It has been almost a year since Franz Beckenbauer died on January 7, 2024. One person who knew the emperor particularly well was Lothar Matthäus. He was particularly emotional about saying goodbye to Beckenbauer – and also described his last moment with him.
“I saw Franz skiing in Obertauern seven or eight months before his death,” Matthäus told Sport Bild. “He came up in the gondola, then drove away on a snowmobile with his wife Heidi at the wheel. Franz needed help: putting on the gloves, tying the scarf. I put the scarf on Franz,” says Matthäus.
In the evening he visited him at home. “That was the last major moment we had. In the end, only the closest family and the doctors had access to him. But we all had great respect for the situation,” explained Matthäus. He then spoke to Beckenbauer’s wife on the phone more often. “She wanted to protect her Franz – and that’s totally understandable,” says Matthäus.
It wasn’t just the loss of Beckenbauer that hit Matthäus this year. His long-time friend and teammate Andreas Brehme also died unexpectedly. “I feel great sadness because both of them were not of the age at which you have to say ‘goodbye’,” said the record national player. “The deaths of Franz and Andy were two blows to the neck that still make me cry today,” he admitted. The two of them are still present in his life. “When I go to the ski hut in Obertauern where we always stayed, I see Franz sitting there.”