Mourning for Klaus Wunder
Franz Beckenbauer’s teammate is dead
Klaus Wunder played for FC Bayern in the mid-1970s.
© imago images/Horstmüller
Mourning for Klaus Wunder: Franz Beckenbauer’s former teammate has died at the age of 73, FC Bayern announced today.
On the day of the memorial service for football legend Franz Beckenbauer (1945-2024), the death of a former teammate of the Kaiser is announced: Former Bayern striker Klaus Wunder (1950-2024) has died at the age of 73, as FC Bayern Munich writes on its homepage. Wunder played for the club in the 1974/75 season and, together with Beckenbauer, Gerd Müller (1945-2021), Uli Hoeneß (72) and Co., won the European Cup in Paris in 1975, the forerunner of today’s Champions League.
Final substitution and one-time national player
Wunder, who was nicknamed “Caesar” as a player, is said to have suffered from dementia and Parkinson’s in his final years and lived in a nursing home in Hemmingen, reports the “Bild” newspaper. Bayern President Herbert Hainer (69) paid tribute to the deceased on the club’s homepage with the words: “FC Bayern is united in mourning with the relatives of Klaus Wunder. He was an outstanding player […] and also a great person who always gave everything for the fans – our club will never forget the ‘Caesar’ of football.”
Born on September 13, 1950 in Erfurt, Wunder began his Bundesliga career in 1971 at MSV Duisburg before moving to Bayern for a rumored transfer fee of between 400,000 and 700,000 German marks – a record sum for the Munich team at the time. In the final of the European Champions Cup he won, he came on as a substitute for Uli Hoeneß after 42 minutes and scored seven goals in a total of 43 Bundesliga games.
From December 1975 he played for Hannover 96 – initially on loan – and moved to Werder Bremen for the 1978/79 season. Wunder played just one game in the senior national team. In September 1973, as a substitute, he won 1-0 with the DFB team against the team from the then Soviet Union. After his football career, he ran a tennis and squash center in Hemmingen near Hanover.