After the announcement of his death on Monday evening, “Kaiser” Franz Beckenbauer received a shower of tributes commensurate with an extraordinary life on and around the pitch.
During the night, world champion and eight-time Ballon d’Or Lionel Messi posted a simple black and white photo of the former central defender of the RFA, haughty bearing and ball at his foot, with the message QEPD (rest in peace in Spanish).
Same choice of black and white for Zinedine Zidane with a photo of the captain of the Mannschaft lifting the World Cup and a few simple but sufficient words to convey enormous respect: “Der Kaiser” forever. RIP Mr Beckenbauer.
“He rewrote German football and left a lasting mark,” summarized former German international and Bayern Munich manager Karl-Heinz Rummenigge just after the announcement of the death of his illustrious compatriot. An observation repeated Tuesday morning in the overseas press.
For Die Welt, which feels “as if a loved one had died”, Beckenbauer was “the last German emperor”. Der Zeit insists on the fact that one of the three men in history to have been world champion as a player and coach (with Mario Zagallo, who died a few days ago, and Didier Deschamps) will never be forgotten.
“And the very day his death was announced, a documentary was released by the ARD channel which has been dedicated to him for a long time,” the weekly slips to note the coincidence. So, even at the end of his life, everything falls into place as if by magic. »
Der Spiegel undoubtedly best sums up the mark left by the icon of German football. “Franz Beckenbauer was much more than a footballer,” writes his website. He left his mark on the Federal Republic like Konrad Adenauer and Willy Brandt (two former chancellors). » The investigative magazine does not, however, conceal a less glorious part of the character, involved in a case over the attribution of the 2006 World Cup to Germany.
The rest of Europe is also devoting its front pages to the disappearance of one of the great ambassadors of the game. “It was said in Germany that Beckenbauer was below God but above the chancellor,” writes the Gazzetta dello Sport. The Kaiser’s charm was as limitless as his influence on German football and society. »
In Spain, Marca cultivates a little nostalgia by recalling two mythical and deliciously vintage objects: the white jersey with black edging of the FRG and the Kaiser 5 shoes produced by Adidas. “Germany mourns the death of Franz Beckenbauer, legend of world football,” we read in the Madrid daily. He said goodbye with the same elegance that he conveyed throughout his life as a player, coach, manager and president. There has been no other like it before, there will be none like it after. The eternal figure of the Kaiser, of the emperor, does not admit of comparisons. »
Finally, in the Netherlands, West Germany’s great rival in the 1970s, Die Telegraaf insists on “the warm friendship with Johan Cruyff. » Who had been waiting for him for almost seven years on the lawns of heaven…
