Franz Beckenbauer (born 11 September 1945), called "The Kaiser", is a German retired football player. He played as defender for Bayern Munich, Hamburger SV and Cosmos New York. After the end of his active career he was the coach of the Germany national team and Bayern Munich. Beckenbauer is regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time.

His son Stephan Beckenbauer was a footballer.

Career
Franz Beckenbauer grew up in the working-class district of Giesing and started playing football at the age of nine with the youth team of SC Munich '06 in 1954. Although he was a supporter of 1860 München he went to Bayern München. Beckenbauer made his debut with Bayern in the Regionalliga Süd on the left wing against Stuttgarter Kickers on 6 June 1964. This year Bayern was promoted to the new German Bundesliga. During Beckenbauer's time at Bayern Munich, the club won three league championships in a row from 1972 to 1974 and also a hat-trick of European Cup wins (1974–76).

After his time with München he signed with Cosmos New York (1977) in the North American Soccer League. After two years with the Hamburger SV (1980-1982) he played till 1983 again with Cosmos.

He played 103 matches for the German football national team. He was member of the World Cup squad in 1966 (2nd), 1970 (3rd) and 1974 (1st). In 1972 he won the European Championship. As manager he won the World Cup 1990 and was runner up in 1986. Afterwards he became coach of his former team FC Bayern München and won the title in 1994 and the UEFA Cup in 1996.

He did lobbing work for Germanys wish to host the 2006 World Cup. After the decision to give them to Germany he was member of the organizational committee.

Club career statistics 

|-
|1965/66||rowspan="12"|Bayern Munich||rowspan="12"|Bundesliga||33||4||colspan="2"|-||33||4
|-
|1966/67||33||2||9||0||42||2
|-
|1967/68||28||4||7||1||35||5
|-
|1968/69||33||2||colspan="2"|-||33||2
|-
|1969/70||34||5||2||0||26||5
|-
|1970/71||33||3||8||1||41||4
|-
|1971/72||34||6||7||1||41||7
|-
|1972/73||34||6||6||1||40||7
|-
|1973/74||34||5||10||1||44||6
|-
|1974/75||33||1||7||1||40||2
|-
|1975/76||34||5||9||0||43||5
|-
|1976/77||33||3||colspan="2"|-||33||3

|-
|1977||rowspan="4"|New York Cosmos||rowspan="4"|NASL||15||4||colspan="2"|-||15||4
|-
|1978||27||8||colspan="2"|-||27||8
|-
|1979||12||1||colspan="2"|-||12||1
|-
|1980||26||4||colspan="2"|-||26||4

|-
|1980/81||rowspan="2"|Hamburger SV||rowspan="2"|Bundesliga||18||0||colspan="2"|-||18||0
|-
|1981/82||10||0||5||0||15||0

|-
|1983||New York Cosmos||NASL||25||2||colspan="2"|-||25||2
424||47||70||5||494||52
105||19||colspan="2"|-||105||19
529||66||70||5||599||71
|}

International career statistics 

|-
|1965||3||0
|-
|1966||12||7
|-
|1967||5||0
|-
|1968||9||1
|-
|1969||6||0
|-
|1970||12||2
|-
|1971||9||2
|-
|1972||7||0
|-
|1973||10||1
|-
|1974||15||0
|-
|1975||7||0
|-
|1976||7||1
|-
|1977||1||0
|-
!Total||103||14
|}

Honours

Civil
1976 Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz am Bande des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
1982 Bavarian Order of Merit
1982 Golden Ring of Honour of the City of Munich
1986 Cross of Merit 1st class of the Federal Republic of Germany (Verdienstkreuz 1. Klasse des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
1995 Honorary Golden Coin of the City of Munich
2004 Honorary Doctor of National Sports Academy Sofia
2006 Commanders Cross of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany (Großes Verdienstkreuz des Verdienstordens der Bundesrepublik Deutschland)
2008 Lower Saxon Merit 1st Class
2009 Order of Merit of the State of North Rhine-Westphalia
2011 Honorary consul of the Republic of Kosovo and of the Football Federation of Kosovo.

Club

Bayern Munich
 Bundesliga –
 Winner: 1968–69, 1971–72, 1972–73, 1973–74
 DFB Cup –
 Winner: 1965–66, 1967–68, 1968–69, 1970–71
 European Cup –
 Winner: 1973–74, 1974–75, 1975–76
 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup –
 Winner: 1966–67
 Intercontinental Cup –
 Winner: 1976
 Regionalliga Süd –
 Winner: 1965, 31 matches 16 goals

Hamburg
 Bundesliga –
 Winner: 1981–82

New York Cosmos
 NASL Championship –
 Winner: 1977, 1978, 1980
 Trans-Atlantic Cup Championships –
 Winner: 1980, 1983

International
 FIFA World Cup –
 Winner: 1974
 Runner-up: 1966
 Third-Place: 1970
 UEFA European Football Championship –
 Winner: 1972
 Runner-up: 1976

Managerial
 FIFA World Cup –
 Winner: 1990
 Runner-up: 1986
 French Ligue 1 –
 Winner: 1990–91
 Bundesliga –
 Winner: 1993–94
 UEFA Cup –
 Winner: 1995–96

Individual

  FIFA Centennial Player and Football Personality Award
 2004
 Laureus Lifetime Achievement Award
 2007
 Ballon d'Or
 Winner: 1972, 1976
 Runner-up: 1974, 1975
 FIFA World Cup Young Player of the Tournament:
 1966
 FIFA World Cup Golden Ball-
 Runner-up: 1974
 FIFA World Cup Team of the Tournament:
 1966, 1970, 1974
 European Football Championships Team of the Tournament:
 1972, 1976
 German Footballer of the Year:
 1966, 1968, 1974, 1976
 NASL Most Valuable Player Award:
 1977
 World Soccer Magazine of the Year
 Winner: 1972, 1976
 Runner-up: 1974, 1975

Other websites 

 Franz Beckenbauer Foundation 
 Facts on Beckenbauer 
 Portrait of Franz Beckenbauer
 Unofficial career stats

References 

1945 births
Living people
1966 FIFA World Cup players
1970 FIFA World Cup players
1974 FIFA World Cup players
German football managers
German footballers
Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany
Sportspeople from Munich
FC Bayern München managers