Franz Beckenbauer used to visit Gran Canaria frequently. The first time was in 1972 to play a triangular match against Las Palmas and Standard de Lieja and there he made friends with Tonono. Finally, in 2006 it is known that it was his last visit to Maspalomas, where he declared himself a lover of the island’s climate.
Franz Beckenbauer visited Gran Canaria for the first time in 1972 on the occasion of the dispute of the City of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Trophy together with Las Palmas, Standard de Lieja and Bayern Munich, a team of which he was the captain and that won the tournament played at the Estadio Insular by winning both matches against his rivals.
That’s where it started the Kaiser’s love affair with the Island. He fell in love with Gran Canaria and also established a beautiful friendship with Tonono three years since the unfortunate death. Both shared a position on the field and the German, surely the best libero in the history of soccer –a position in which he was the pioneer–, he said about the Gran Canarian that he was “one of the best in his position in Europe.”
They both shook hands in the capital trophy friendly in 1972, the same year in which Tonono started the qualifying match for the Euro Cup against Yugoslavia that cost Spain a ticket and that Beckenbauer would later win with the Mannschaft and along with five members who were playing in the Insular with Bayern.
The Kaiser used to go to that stadium to watch the league matches. Las Palmas Sports Union in the following decades, but always from anonymity and trying to go incognito.
But in 2006 the German, like many other compatriots, decided to come to Maspalomas to spend a kind of honeymoon after the World Cup dispute in Germany ended, for which he was the president of the championship organizing committee.
“I like to come to Gran Canaria because of the climate, both in summer and winter it is mild,” said the Kaiser in 2006.
Just 22 days after Italy won the World Cup and committed Zinedine Zidane’s headbutt on the spot, Beckenabuer went with his wife, Heidi Brumster, and their children Joel and Francesca after traveling directly from Salzburg and staying at the Gran Hotel Residenci.a, from the businessman and personal friend Theo Gerlach, who invited him to stay at his compound.
There he already confessed that he used to like to come to Gran Canaria “because of the climate”, but he did not dislike the seasons. “Both in summer and winter it is very mild,” he admitted, at the same time that he confessed that he came to play golf on the Maspalomas course, his other hobby beyond soccer.
2024-01-09 00:00:40
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