MUNICH – Germany said an emotional goodbye to Franz Beckenbauer on Jan 19, with former teammate Uli Hoeness crediting the football legend for making Germans “proud” again.

Beckenbauer died of natural causes aged 78 on Jan 7 in Austria and was laid to rest in a private ceremony in Munich five days later.

The Jan 19 ceremony, which featured leading lights of German football and politics, was open to the public, giving fans a final chance to celebrate the man known as “Der Kaiser” – The Emperor.

Completed for the 2006 World Cup, which Beckenbauer ran as president of the organising committee, Munich’s Allianz Arena was a fitting venue for the public goodbye.

“The Allianz Arena, the most beautiful stadium in the world, would never have been built without Franz,” Hoeness said of the home ground of Bayern Munich, the club Beckenbauer played for from 1964 to 1977.

Despite the chilly conditions, around 20,000 people gathered under blue skies in the Bavarian capital.

The ceremony opened with a rendition of Con Te Partiro performed by Munich tenor Jonas Kaufmann.

He ended the event with Nessun Dorma, an aria from Giacomo Puccini’s opera Turandot, which became the unofficial anthem of the 1990 World Cup.

It was sung by the Three Tenors in Rome on the eve of the final which West Germany, coached by Beckenbauer, won.

The central defender’s famous No. 5, made of red roses, lay on the green turf of the Allianz, alongside wreaths placed by the biggest clubs in the world including Liverpool and Barcelona.

Born in 1945 in the suburbs of Munich, the peerless Beckenbauer became a national treasure in a divided country still grappling with the legacy of World War II.

Winning national and European titles with Bayern, his West Germany captured the 1972 European Championship and the 1974 World Cup.

As a coach, he guided the nation to their next World Cup in 1990, before playing a leading, if controversial, role in securing the 2006 edition on home soil.

The tournament, known in Germany as the “Summer Fairytale”, helped change the nation’s view of itself, six decades after the end of the war. Hoeness, who played alongside Beckenbauer at Bayern and at international level, said bringing the World Cup to the country was Der Kaiser’s “masterpiece”.

“He worked his butt off for years and travelled to the farthest corner of the earth to get the votes for Germany,” the 72-year-old said in an emotional speech.

He added that the tournament showed “how open and friendly our country can be, with thousands driving through our streets waving flags”.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier said the World Cup gave Germany a “new, friendly view of ourselves”.

Beckenbauer later faced corruption allegations for securing votes for the tournament, but was never found guilty.

“Dear Franz, you died 12 days ago. And to be honest, I miss you deeply,” Hoeness continued in his speech. “Rest in peace, a peace that you unfortunately could not enjoy in the past few years in a manner you deserve.”

Fifa president Gianni Infantino sat alongside Uefa chief Aleksander Ceferin and German FA boss Bernd Neuendorf.

Barcelona’s Joan Laporta, Paris Saint-Germain’s Nasser Al-Khelaifi and Real Madrid’s honorary president Jose Martinez “Pirri” were also in the stands.

With the current Bayern squad in attendance, an array of German football stars came onto the pitch to pay their respects to the man widely viewed as his nation’s finest footballer.

German World Cup winners Paul Breitner, Lothar Matthaus and Bastian Schweinsteiger walked onto the green grass of the Allianz Arena to lay wreaths in Beckenbauer’s honour.

With Chancellor Olaf Scholz in the stands, President Steinmeier called Beckenbauer a “Munich lad who became a citizen of the world” and said he was “one of Germany’s greats”.

“I don’t know if the angels in heaven play sports,” he said, “but if so, then they will have heard a new voice in the past few days, in a Bavarian accent, saying ‘get out there and play football’.”

He was referring to Beckenbauer’s famous pre-match speech to his players before they delivered the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

“That’s a voice we will miss forever. The Kaiser’s voice. Franz Beckenbauer’s voice,” he said.
AFP, REUTERS