Germany football legend Franz Beckenbauer dies aged 78
Hindustan TimesFranz Beckenbauer, a footballer so elegant that he was nicknamed ‘Der Kaiser’ and who won the World Cup as player and coach, has died. German soccer legend Franz Beckenbauer, head of Germany's organising committee for the soccer World Cup, plays with the Golden Ball for the World Cup in front of the Brandenburg Gate in Berlin, on April 18, 2006 “It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” the family said in a statement to DPA, the German news agency. Like with Mario Zagallo, the first to win the World Cup as player and coach, football was not Beckenbauer’s first career choice. The World Cup title in 1954 had facilitated West Germany’s acceptance after World War 2, Beckenbauer said, and was important for their self-confidence.