The German legend played in three World Cups and was also crowned coach of Germany.
In the early 1970s, Rinnus Michels revolutionized football with the implementation of the ‘total football’ style of play, which consisted of all men on the field performing both attack and defense functions. The main architect of it was Johan Cruyff, but although they looked like the favorites to win the 1974 World Cup, Franz Beckenbauer’s Germany prevented it.
Cruyff was trained by Michels himself to strengthen his body, since the style of total football implied strong wear and tear on the player (he had to be in all possible positions on the field). With Ajax Amsterdam, Johan won the Eredivisie six times and was the main figure of the Netherlands for the 1974 World Cup.
To this day, this team is remembered as one of those that displayed the most spectacular football in history, along with Guardiola’s Barcelona and Vicente del Bosque’s Spain. However, Franz Beckenbauer’s West Germany was able to stop the Netherlands and win the Cup.
The libero applied a personal mark to Johan Cruyff to cancel it out and thus be able to take advantage of the opportunities up front. Paul Breitner and Gerd Müller turned the one-zero score in favor of the Netherlands and became world champions.
The man became a legend
Already as a coach, Beckenbauer commanded another of the European World Cups. In Italy 1990, Germany beat Argentina in the Final with everything and Diego Armando Maradona with the Albiceleste. “Franz Beckenbauer did not look at the ball, but rather he perceived it with his foot,” Schwarzenbeck.