Status: 09.01.2024, 10:28 a.m.
By: Lukas Schierlinger
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Franz Beckenbauer has left a lot of traces in Munich. Not least at his youth club. The first board of the association praises a "sympathetic" world star.
Munich – He was the first libero, a legend – and known beyond all borders as the "Kaiser". After the death of Franz Beckenbauer, there is great mourning in the football world. "The news came as a deep shock to me," says Giuseppe Scialdone over the phone.
Beckenbauer began his great career at SC Munich in 1906: "It's unbelievable what he achieved"
Scialdone is the first chairman of SpVgg 1906 Haidhausen. Beckenbauer had taken his first steps as a footballer at the club on Giesinger's St.-Martin-Straße. Before the later merger with FC Haidhausen, the club was still called SC Munich from 1906. "It's unbelievable what he's done as a player. And the fact that he brought the World Cup to Germany in 2006 was a great achievement. It really was a dream year and I have great memories of it," explains Scialdone.
Beckenbauer's parents' house is very close to the Giesing football pitch. © IMAGO / Fred Joch / reviersport
In 1959, Beckenbauer moved from his boyhood club to FC Bayern's youth team. The "Watschn Affair", which caused a planned transfer to TSV 1860 to collapse, is legendary. The last time Beckenbauer stopped by St.-Martin-Straße for a TV shoot was in 2018, reports Scialdone. "I found him to be a very likeable and enormously down-to-earth person."
Football world mourns the death of Franz Beckenbauer: "Kaiser" dies at the age of 78
It is a great honour that the club is still so strongly associated with Beckenbauer. He wants to sit down with his fellow board members on Wednesday, Scialdone said. "We don't have anything planned yet. But we're looking at what we can do to be able to remember Beckenbauer on our club grounds." The 1974 World Cup winner has not maintained any closer contact with club members in recent years. "That has become less with his move to Salzburg."
Beckenbauer died on Sunday (7 January) at the age of 78, his family initially told the German Press Agency (dpa). "It is with deep sadness that we inform you that my husband and our father Franz Beckenbauer passed away peacefully yesterday surrounded by his family," it said in a statement. Football stars such as Thomas Müller bid an emotional farewell to "Emperor Franz".
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