Even today, there still exists that moment during World Cup victory celebrations when every carefully choreographed event suddenly becomes anarchic and no longer follows a script: Gennaro Gattuso, suddenly striding across the turf of Berlin's Olympic Stadium in his underpants after Italy’s triumph in 2006, having given away all his remaining clothes to the tifosi in the stands; Iker Casillas kissing his then-girlfriend, TV journalist Sara Carbonero, on the mouth during a supposedly professional interview after Spain's triumph in 2010; the shameful moments when Turkish chef Salt Bae suddenly feels like an Argentine player in Qatar in 2022 and snatched the trophy from the hands of the likes of Lionel Messi and Co.
And then there is that one scene that has burned itself into the collective memory of at least all German football fans who were alive at the time: Franz Beckenbauer, brown curls, long, flowing jacket, hands in the pockets of his light-coloured, wide-leg trousers, gold medal around his neck, walking slowly across the pitch of the Stadio Olimpico, lost in thought, while around him his players celebrate exuberantly like children, chased by photographers and cameramen. An intimate moment of solitude and tranquillity amid the collective madness.
"It was all so far away. Even though there was so much cheering and such a loud atmosphere. I was just on the pitch, I noticed that I was moving. But I had the feeling that someone was pushing me. Someone was urging me on. Someone was pulling me. But what was I thinking at that moment? I don't remember. I was probably dreaming," is how Beckenbauer himself described those lonely moments.
It is 8 July, 1990; Germany has just become world champions for the third time, a feat previously achieved only by Brazil and Italy, and on this last magical night of the World Cup in Italy, the legend, Kaiser Franz Beckenbauer, has finally become the shining light of German football as well as the unofficial president of a country that is rediscovering itself.
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A nation reunited
The World Cup took place in the middle of a year in which everything seemed possible for Germany and Germans. Beckenbauer and his players, however, ensured a summer of collective bliss.
The Berlin Wall fell on 9 November 1989, and the two German states were in the process of growing together, or at least what the West German Federal Republic of Germany understood to be growing together. On 3 October, 1990, a few months after the triumph in Rome, the GDR joined the Federal Republic, ending the experiment of real existing socialism on German soil after 40 agonising years of separation.
Although the East German players were not yet in Italy, the title was celebrated equally in both German states. The 1990 World Cup is perceived as the first pan-German experience, the first joint triumph of a nation that had been divided for so long.
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The conductor
Franz Anton Beckenbauer, 44 years old on that night in Rome, achieved in his last game as coach of the German team what only the Brazilian Mario Zagallo had previously managed: Becoming world champion as a player and a manager. Beckenbauer, perhaps the most unlikely of all Germans – casual, light, elegant, sensitive, drawn to beautiful things – was the conductor of this triumph.
Beckenbauer was blessed with an aura that made his surroundings seem to stand still for a moment when he entered a room. World champion as a player, world champion as a coach, and later the architect of the German summer fairy tale of 2006. Everything seemed to come easily to him, until much later, when nothing would be easy anymore.
When corruption allegations arose against the 2006 World Cup bid he led, and when one of his sons died of cancer, it broke his heart. Beckenbauer withdrew from public life before suffering a stroke, Parkinson's disease, and the onset of dementia. On 7 January, 2024, he died prematurely at the age of 78.
But in 1990, this sad end for the illustrious figure who ultimately became human again is still so far away. “Go out there, have fun and play football,” he told his players in the dressing room before the final. It was the simplest of speeches, one that says a lot about Beckenbauer as a person, but does not reveal that he is anything but a scatterbrain as a coach; throughout the tournament, he meticulously prepared his team for every opponent, and in no game do his players appear surprised; they are always dominant and in control.
At the same time, however, every single player, including the current and future world stars such as Lothar Matthaus, Jurgen Klinsmann, Andreas Brehme, Jurgen Kohler, Thomas Hassler and Rudi Voller, knew what he could and could not do. Beckenbauer was merciless in this respect. Of course, he knew that not even his captain Matthsus, who played a fantastic tournament in Italy, was blessed with the same talent that he had. Matthaus also fell short of Diego Maradona, even though the Argentine would later describe him as his toughest opponent and favourite rival.
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But Beckenbauer's importance to world football was even greater. Perhaps no one else has ever been able to do as much with the ball as Maradona, but he never invented a new position. Unlike Beckenbauer, who turned the defensive and clearing libero into a withdrawn playmaker. A quarterback of the beautiful game who, until the introduction of the back four and zonal marking, organised the game and played a role in attack.
Beckenbauer's specialities as a player were long, precise diagonal passes with the outside of his foot as well as irresistible dribbling out of defence with his back straight, eyes always on the pitch. Long before the GOAT debate was even invented, world football was led by Beckenbauer with his elegance, by the force of nature Pele with his goals, and the genius Johan Cruyff as the defining figure of Dutch Total Football. Kaiser Franz, O Rei Pele and Koning Johan: three kings who ruled football.
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'Unbeatable for years to come'
As a coach, Beckenbauer has no problem reminding players of their mortality. After Germany's narrow 1-0 victory over Czechoslovakia in the 1990 quarter-finals, Matthaus and his team-mates were given the lecture of their lives in the dressing room.
"Franz was beside himself. He swore that we were the biggest idiots and kicked an ice bucket across the dressing room. We had no idea what was going on,” Brehme later described Beckenbauer's outburst. Matthaus agreed that he had never been so insulted before: “But Franz did it deliberately. He was always forward-thinking and wanted to send a message.”
A few days later, the semi-final against England turned out to be the best match of the entire tournament, with two teams in great form giving their all for 120 minutes. In the end, Germany won on penalties and Gary Lineker would go on to utter his legendary phrase: “Football is a simple game: Twenty-two men chase a ball for 90 minutes and at the end, the Germans always win.”
In the exuberance of the final victory, Beckenbauer would say something similar a few days later, but without Lineker's subtle irony. In doing so, he would place an almost unbearable burden on his former assistant coach and successor, Berti Vogts.
"We are now number one in the world, we have been number one in Europe for a long time. Now the players from East Germany are joining us. I believe that the German team will be unbeatable for years to come. I feel sorry for the rest of the world," were Beckenbauer's parting words.