Franz Beckenbauer is dead. On Sunday, January 7, 2023, the football legend died after long-term health problems at the age of 78. Beckenbauer won the World Cup both as a player in 1974 and as coach of the German national team in 1990. However, the bon vivant is not only famous and infamous for his glorious career as an athlete, but he also always attracted attention with his private life – and the odd headline.
Football god and womanizer
As befits a true football star, Franz Beckenbauer left no stone unturned in the women’s world. He had many love affairs, married three times and became a father five times. His first son Thomas was born in 1963, when Beckenbauer was just 18 years old. Thomas emerged from a relationship with his childhood sweetheart Ingrid Grönke. The two were never married, which was perceived as a huge scandal at the time.
Three years later, on his 21st birthday, the aspiring footballer married his then secretary Brigitte Wittmann, †76. Two more of his five children, Michael and Stephan, come from the marriage. The soccer world champion met his second wife, Sybille Weimar, 76, during the 1974 World Cup. The couple shared a life for eleven years. The woman with whom Beckenbauer was together until the end of his days, who went through good and bad times with him, is called Heidrun Burmester, 57. Franz and Heidi were a unit until his death. Their love produced two children, Joel, 24, and Francesca, 20.
Football was always number one
Whatever Beckenbauer touched, he did with passion. This not only applied to his liaisons, but also to football, with which he probably had the most passionate relationship of all. It was not without reason that he was nicknamed “Kaiser” because he played with elegance, precision and ease as a footballer and also achieved high goals as a coach. He started his professional career at FC Bayern Munich, later played for HSV and then moved to Cosmos New York in the USA. In addition to the national team, Beckenbauer also worked as a coach at FC Bayern, where he later became president.
Sources used: stern.de, promipool.de