West German national soccer team captain Franz Beckenbauer, second from right, embraces his team mate, forward Juergen Grabowski while walking around the Olympic stadium, after West Germany beat ...

Franz Beckenbauer, who led the West German national team to World Cup championships as player and coach and whose on-field presence was so dominant that he was nicknamed “Der Kaiser,” died Jan ...

Beckenbauer stepped away from the German national team in 1977 after being capped 103 times, retiring from the game altogether in 1983 following his last campaign with the Cosmos. The following ...

West Germany captain Franz Beckenbauer holds up the trophy after his team defeated the Netherlands, 2-1, in the World Cup soccer final at Munich's Olympic Stadium on July 7, 1974. (AP Photo, File) ...

Franz Beckenbauer, a ... More notable still, he won with his national team, too. Beckenbauer helped guide West Germany to the final of the 1966 World Cup, losing in extra time to the host, ...

Franz Beckenbauer put himself a step ahead on the soccer field by taking a step back. Skip to content Menu Today's paper. ... or his national team, with whom he won the World Cup in 1974. ...

Franz Beckenbauer was a World Cup-winning player and manager, ... But his career with the national team ended prematurely when he joined New York Cosmos in 1977, ...

Roots. Beckenbauer was born in the war-torn city of Munich itself, and started playing football at his local team SC 1906 Munich. In 1959, he joined Bayern’s youth team, and made his first team ...

Beckenbauer stepped away from the German national team in 1977 after being capped 103 times, retiring from the game altogether in 1983 following his last campaign with the Cosmos. The following ...

FILE - West German national soccer team captain Franz Beckenbauer, second from right, embraces his team mate, forward Juergen Grabowski while walking around the Olympic stadium, after West Germany ...

The “libero” — taken from the Italian word for “free” and describing a player who had a covering role behind a defensive line — was not an entirely new concept to soccer by the late ...

Franz Beckenbauer put himself a step ahead on the soccer field by taking a step back.