B on B: When Bambina Met Beckenbauer

Becks and me, August 2008.  Photo by Thomas von Ubrizsy

With the 2010 World Cup frenzy in full swing, everyone seems to have football on their minds.

In the summer of 2008, I met one of football’s greatest players, Franz Beckenbauer.  I wasn’t a football moron; my mother had some connection to FIFA once upon a time, and I grew up knowing, at the very least, who Pele was.  The national team I support is España, of course, and if pressed to choose a club, it would have to be Barça.  So anything to do with the Bundesliga, was, well, a bit too Deutschland uber alles for me.

But Franz Beckenbauer was a charmer, even if I had never heard of him before that sunny day in August in Ulrichen, Switzerland.  However, my cousin Rick – a sports journalist, football fanatic and Liverpool supporter – had, and when I texted him about the meeting, he texted me back immediately from Manila with a list of questions – he could barely contain his envy.  As I sat beside the original Becks before there even was a David Beckham, I pretended to be knowledgeable about the sport, asking what I hoped were intelligent questions, as per Rick’s instructions, like how he felt about Klinsman coming back to coach Bayern…

I thought Klinsman was a former Bayern Munich star player who’d moved to another club a la David Beckham.  It turned out that he had returned to Bayern once more as a trainer (he has since left after his team’s less than stellar performance). 

Me looking like I know what I'm talking about.  Photo by Thomas von Ubrizsy

I must have masked my ignorance fairly well as I don’t think Beckenbauer noticed, or if he did, he was too much of a gentleman to point it out.  He did, however, lament the fact that Filipinos did not play more football, which seemed to suit the Filipino physique better, and were far too fixated on basketball.  FIFA President Sepp Blatter, a frequent visitor to the Philippines, said the same thing to me the night before at a FIFA dinner.  What he said about Napoleoneta and the Fat Pig I’ll keep to myself.

Anyway, an account of my meeting with Beckenbauer was scheduled to come out in GQ South Africa in time for the December 2008 issue, but the article appeared a year later, truncated to half its original length.  African time, what can I say?

 

The original story appears below.  PS I’m still rooting for Spain all the way!!!

5 MINUTES WITH BECKENBAUER

by Bambina Wise 

Like many tiny Swiss villages, Ulrichen is postcard-perfect pretty, snugly tucked away between Alpine mountains that are lush with trees in the summer and blindingly white in the winter.  Every day is like any other day, where life not so much hums as whispers along in a polite and pleasant pace, with nothing ever really happening.

Except when the legends of football come to town once a year to grace the annual Sepp Blatter Football Tournament.  Hosted by the long-serving FIFA President himself, who happens to be a native son of Ulrichen, the one-day charity event takes place at the end of August. The entire village comes out in full force, relaxed and mingling freely with Blatter and other personalities from the world of football and Swiss politics while enjoying white wine and raclette.

It is over raclette that I meet Franz Beckenbauer, one of football’s most enduring legends.  To be honest, I have no idea who he is, or how revered he is among fans of the game.  

The evening before, at the pre-tournament dinner with Blatter, FIFA’s top brass and village dignitaries – raclette was on the menu once again, of course, as we were in the Valais region, otherwise known as raclette country – Beckenbauer’s name was spoken with reverence.  My admission of ignorance, however, was greeted with disbelief.  And pity.

“You don’t know Beckenbauer?”

I knew who Pele was, but that was scant consolation for the football enthusiasts present at the dinner.  For them Beckenbauer’s stature was just as mythical.

The German soccer star?  With Bayern Munich?  One of the greatest players of all time?”

Um, sorry, no.  What position did he play?

“Sweeper.”

They proceeded to enumerate the highlights of Beckenbauer’s stellar career.

“The only other man to have won the World Cup both as a player and as a manager.  Led Germany to World Cup victory in 1974 against Holland, and again in 1990, against Argentina as coach of the national team.

“And when he was with Bayern, they won the Bundesliga league championships three years in a row, from 1972-1974, and then the European Cup from 1974-1976.  In fact Bayern was told to keep the trophy permanently since the club kept on winning!”

I began picturing Beckenbauer as a titan with broad shoulders and impossibly long, muscled limbs towering over all the lesser mortals scattered helplessly across the football field. 

“You know, the three greatest football players of all time are Pele, Beckenbauer and Maradona.  Pele is known as the King.  Beckenbauer is called the Kaiser…”

And what was Maradona?  The Coca Lord?

The tournament opens the next morning to crisp blue skies and gentle sunshine.  I spot Michel Platini, the former French football star, currently President of UEFA, his stockiness contained in a dark blazer, charming the press.   Sepp Blatter arrives, looking cheery and avuncular in a panama hat and casual cotton trousers.

But where is Beckenbauer?  After all I’d heard the night before, I am half-expecting angels to herald his arrival and the crowds to part like the Red Sea.

Instead, trumpets blare as a military brass band in blue-and-red livery and feathered top hats parade towards the football field, and a fiercely regal eagle swoops down, its claws grasping the ball that will kick off the tournament. 

There’s no mistaking Beckenbauer’s presence.  At 63 years of age, he is tall, lithe and elegant, dressed in a black polo t-shirt, dark trousers and an oatmeal-toned blazer cut close to the body.  When I finally meet him, I immediately sense that this is a man of quiet strength and undeniable star power.

“I retired from football when I turned 50,” he tells me in between signing autographs and posing good-naturedly for the media with strands of raclette twirled around his fork.  “That was 13 years ago.”

“Is there life after football?” I ask.

“Obviously I don’t play anymore,” he replies with the slightest tinge of regret.  “Although a year ago, for this very same tournament, Sepp Blatter persuaded me to play.  It’s not easy to say no to Sepp.  But that was the last time.  At my age, I can’t play the way I used to.”

Football, nevertheless, is still a part of his life.  He even played for the North American Soccer League, joining New York Cosmos from 1977-1980 and a final season in 1983.  Needless to say, his team won the Soccer Bowl three times. 

“What is it about football,” I press on, “that keeps you passionately involved?”   He remains part of FIFA’s Executive Committee; in 2006 he headed the Organizing Committee of the World Cup in Germany.

“Football is my life and ever will it be,” he says. “I experienced the sport from all sides and levels and it will always be my number one passion. I am so thankful for the game to which I owe everything.”

“Including your fitness levels?” 

His hair is close-cropped and grey, but there’s no denying that he is in spectacular shape, both physically and mentally.  I detect no stooping of the shoulders, no slowness in his gait when he saunters off back to the field a little later. 

“I play golf and I swim every day; I have a lap pool at home.  I also go mountain hiking, you know, with the sticks.  Nordic walking, it’s called.”

“And running?”

He shakes his head and smiles.  “No, no.  No more running.  I did enough running on the field for 20 years.”

“Your style on and off the field has been described as elegant…”

“Really? My style is described as elegant?”  He looks surprised.  “I have no style or grooming tips I can share because there are none. I’m wearing since years the same type of glasses and if I have to buy some clothes I prefer to go to nearly the same shops every time but just because they know me and my preferences. My sport style will always be Adidas, which is my permanent partner since 1965.”

Indeed, he was immortalized in the famous Jose + 10 Adidas commercial broadcast during the 2006 World Cup.  In it, a boy conjures his Dream Team with the best players in contemporary football:  Zidane, Beckham, Ballack, Kaka, Lampard, Cisse, Riquelme, Raul, Duff, Podolski, Khan, Gerrard, Robben, Schweinsteiger…  and a young Beckenbauer joins the game along with a young Platini.  Their images were, of course, digitally produced, but their inclusion is significant.

He tells me he lives in Austria now with his third wife, with whom he has two young children, aged eight and four.  He also has three older children (the oldest is 44) from his previous marriages. 

Travel, he confides, is another one of his passions.  South Africa is a favourite destination, and he wouldn’t dream of missing the 2010 World Cup.

“I visited South Africa already a few times and I love this country, the impressive nature, the wild animals, and I also love its people with their vitality and spirit.  I really believe that hosting the World Cup will strengthen football there as a sport, will inspire a lot of young people.  We will see a national team that will fight like never seen before, with all the fans supporting them. It will be a really important and unforgettable event for the country and its people.”

With that, the Kaiser instantly gains another devoted subject.  Me.

 

 

 

Comments

[Claire Walter]

Franz Beckenbauer's revelation that he now Nordic Walks rather than runs to stay in shape inspired my post at http://nordic-walking-usa.blogspot.com/2010/03/franz-beckenbauer-nordic-waker.html. The small Nordic Walking community in America keeps hoping for a boost from a celebrity who has taken up the sport. No surprise that famous Europeans join millions of their less-known compatriots in this effective outdoor exercise.

[bambina]

Hi Claire, thanks so much for the link, and I'm happy to have been able to help spread the word about Nordic Walking in a small way! Have to confess I haven't tried it yet... but I'm intrigued!

[manuelbuencamino]

I guess daily golf makes me half Beckenbauer. Sure am glad you were able to peel off from scrabble to post. Missed your posts