He is a legend of football, became world champion both as a player and as a coach: Franz Beckenbauer. An ARD portrait pays tribute to this unique personality, who for a long time only knew light and later had to learn to live with shadows.
This elegance, this lightness of being with the ball at his feet, is what distinguished Franz Beckenbauer and was simply unique on the football field: “He was the best of his time and there was no one better to come along,” says Günter Netzer about his friend and long-time player Teammates on the national team. “Franz was at the top of the hierarchy and then the rest came,” says Paul Breitner, who won numerous titles with Beckenbauer at FC Bayern and the German national team.
And the former US national player and later teammate at Cosmos New York, Werner Roth, still remembers the 1966 World Cup final at London’s Wembley Stadium, when he saw Franz Beckenbauer, then 20 years old, on television for the first time: “Just like that I wanted to play him because he was just so incredible, so elegant, so flawless.”
BR documentary highlights football legend Franz Beckenbauer
The attributions are not misleading. The “Kaiser” is still a legend in football today. From the late 1960s onwards, he shaped Germany’s image in the world like few others. A man who seemed to succeed in everything for a long time, a person with an extraordinary aura and an eventful private life. With their documentary “Beckenbauer” the BR–Authors Philipp Grüll and Christoph Nahr describe the “Emperor’s” life’s work in all its facets – from his beginnings in Giesing to his rise to becoming a world football star and probably the most famous German on this planet, right up to the corruption allegations surrounding the awarding of the 2006 World Cup. The two authors evaluated countless hours of archive material and tens of thousands of photos for their 90-minute documentary.
In addition to Günter Netzer, Paul Breitner and Werner Roth, other companions from the world of football such as Sepp Maier and Lothar Matthäus have their say in this Bavarian Radio documentary. They look back on Franz Beckenbauer’s successes with FC Bayern and the national team: the 1974 World Cup, where he won the title as captain, and the 1990 World Cup in Italy, where he led the national team to victory as team boss.
Beckenbauer manager Höfl comments on summer fairy tale allegations
The documentary is also about the event that he himself described as the highlight of his career: the 2006 World Cup, which Franz Beckenbauer brought to Germany and which led to a global boost in the Federal Republic’s image.
However, it later came to light that there were dubious financial flows surrounding the awarding of the World Cup. “Spiegel” journalist Gunther Latsch talks about his research in the BR production and Franz Beckenbauer’s manager Marcus Höfl comments on the allegations in detail for the first time in front of a television camera.
Former Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer: “He didn’t run as a saint”
Three top politicians who experienced Franz Beckenbauer as football fans and later worked with him in connection with the 2006 World Cup also have their say: former Federal Interior Ministers Wolfgang Schäuble and Otto Schily as well as former Federal Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer. For Schily, Beckenbauer is still “an icon” today. Wolfgang Schäuble, who recently died, said with regard to the 2006 World Cup: “He certainly made mistakes too, everyone doesn’t do everything right.” And Fischer comes to the conclusion: “He didn’t start out as a saint; I never saw him as a saint, but as a human being.”
In addition to the athlete, coach and World Cup organizer, the focus is also on Franz Beckenbauer as a person. His former partner Diana Sandmann talks about the scandal when their relationship became public and about their time together in New York in the late 1970s. His brother Walter reports on the estrangement between him and Franz when he became a global star – and of a conversation in New York’s Central Park after which he was “the happiest person in the world.”
Beckenbauer brother Walter: “He’s not feeling well”
Franz Beckenbauer himself withdrew from the public eye years ago. Walter Beckenbauer talks about his brother’s health: “If I said now that he is fine, then I would be lying, and I don’t like lying. He does not feel good. It’s a constant up and down.”
Appears in addition to the TV documentary the four-part BR podcastst “Beckenbauer – The last emperor of Germany. Narrated by Sebastian Bezzel”. The well-known actor and football fan Sebastian Bezzel guides you through the life of Franz Beckenbauer as a host. From January 2, 2024, all episodes will be available in the ARD audio library and one new episode per week everywhere else where podcasts are available.