MUNICH-. The day after the announcement of the death of Franz Beckenbauer, The people of Munich began this Tuesday morning, despite the freezing cold, to pay tribute to their ‘Kaiser‘, legend of german soccer and source of inspiration for various generations.
Despite the fact that the thermometer read -8ºC in the morning, several fans gathered at Säbener Strasse, the headquarters of Bayern Munich, the club in which Beckenbauer forged much of his legend, with three European Champion titles (predecessor of the Champions League) in 1974, 1975 and 1976.
“In 1990, when he became world champion as a coach, those minutes when he walked alone (through the Olympic Stadium in Rome), those were my childhood memories of Beckenbauer. That’s what I remember as a child,” explained Bogdan Piecuch, a 45-year-old fan of the Bavarian club, in front of the club headquarters.
“Without him, Bayern would not exist. We cannot imagine a Bayern without Beckenbauer. Obviously Bayern will continue without Beckenbauer, but it will be a little different,” he added.
A bouquet of flowers and a candle were placed at the entrance of an entity that Beckenbauer, who died on Sunday at the age of 78, catapulted, first as a footballer alongside other club legends such as Gerd Müller and Sepp Maier in the 1960s and 1970 and then as a manager alongside Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge in the 1990s and 2000s, to the football power it is today.
The X account (formerly Twitter) and the ‘Rekordmeister’ website were dyed black as a sign of mourning. Bayern Munich will return to the competition, after the Christmas break, next Friday hosting Hoffenheim at the Allianz Arena (7:30 p.m. GMT), where 75,000 spectators are expected to participate in an emotional farewell to their idol.
The date and place of the funeral of Beckenbauer, who “fell peacefully asleep” surrounded by his family on Sunday in Salzburg (Austria) have not yet been announced.
“The world of football and everyone in general mourns our friend Franz. Bayern, as a thank you and a memory, should organize a funeral ceremony for him in this stadium, which would never have seen the light of day without him,” explained Rummenigge, member of the supervisory board. from Bayern, to the German tabloid Bild.
The ‘Emperor’ and ‘Lichtgestal’
The Allianz Arena will probably remain Beckenbauer’s main material legacy to ‘his’ Bayern. In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the club had to decide whether to continue in the Olympic Stadium built for the 1972 Games or build a new venue.
President of the club at that time, Beckenbauer was always in favor of the second option, which would allow Bayern to become the owner of its stadium, when it was only a tenant in the Olympic Stadium.
Obviously, the entire German press dedicates its Tuesday covers to the ‘Kaiser’. Bild made a photographic montage that summarizes his career: lifting the 1974 World Cup as a player, in the Olympic stadium in Rome where he won the 1990 World Cup as a coach, or next to the Germany-2006 poster, whose role was decisive for that the country obtained the organization.
Beyond the nickname by which he is known worldwide, ‘Kaiser Franz’, which was given to him after a German Cup final in 1969 against Schalke 04, and mythologized in a photograph in Vienna in 1971 at the foot of the statue of the Emperor of Austria Franz Joseph I, the newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung preferred to dedicate the name ‘Lichtgestalt’ (‘luminous figure’) to him.
An idea to reflect the best German footballer of all time, surely also the best German athlete in general, who monopolized the spotlight wherever he went and projected an aura that was a source of inspiration for all of football and society in the country.
Source: AFP
