Franz Beckenbauer and the memories of the world title and the first meeting



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Franz Beckenbauer is moved, shocked, amazed. The emperor mourns the loss of Argentine footballing idol Diego Maradona.

“It’s a shame, incredibly sad. He was a talented footballer,” says the 75-year-old SPORT1. Beckenbauer, the light figure in this country, has so many formative memories of the hand of God, as Maradona was called from his historic hand goal during the 1986 World Cup in a duel with England.

For example, when the outstanding expert, who died of a heart attack at just 60, was crowned world champion with a 3-2 win over Germany – and then four years later in the final against the DFB team around that team boss Beckenbauer back to the bitter underdog guess.

Which also happened because Beckenbauer Maradona had set aside a special guard.

“There was the Buchwald (Guido, Anm. D. Red.) predestined. So I went back to identifying this man and Guido Buchwald did a great job with the support of the others who were around him “, says the Kaiser SPORT1. “In 1990 Maradona was nearly 30, so it wasn’t as effective as four years ago.”

“Hand of God”: this is how Beckenbauer lived Maradona

Remember: At the tournament in Mexico, the star of the Argentine superstar had risen completely, Maradona had risen to the extent of all football – despite, perhaps a little because of his handball fraud, in which he went up to the header , but then the leather overtook the English goalkeeper Peter Shilton by unfair means.

“I was in the stadium and I saw something was wrong because he jumped up and suddenly the ball was in the goal,” Beckenbauer recalls. “Well, he couldn’t reach him at all, the ball passed him.” And the legend of what he later called the “hand of God” was born.

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“But he must have thought that way with his hand,” Beckenbauer said. “At the moment, if you weren’t looking closely, you didn’t see it at all.”

Like Maradona’s opponents they sometimes couldn’t take care of them fast enough when the technically adept offensive artist demoted them to extras.

Beckenbauer: You couldn’t keep Maradona

“You couldn’t have kept it at all,” Beckenbauer says. “The remedy was above all the man’s marking. That his opponent had the task of simply following him for more than 90 minutes. He didn’t have to do anything else, just disturb Maradona while he was building the game and, of course, at the end.”

As in the case of the German coup at the World Cup in Rome. “I did it in the 1986 final because I didn’t have anyone else,” Beckenbauer explains. “Maradona was the attacking midfielder who decided the World Cup for Argentina alone. In the final I wanted an opponent who could stand up to him. I only had one, Lothar Matthäus! He defended him very well”.

“Maradona was actually not as visible as usual,” added Beckenbauer. “On the other hand, Lothar obviously wasn’t as effective as usual for us because he was bound to this task.”

The emperor also has fond memories of his first meeting with Maradona.

Beckenbauer at the first meeting with Maradona

Every year we took a trip to South America with Cosmos New York. In 1978 after the World Cup we played against the U21 Argentines. Against Maradona, that’s when I saw him for the first time. I said: this is not a footballer, this is an artist! A dancer! This turned out to be the case. I’ve never seen anything like it before. He was a genius of the time: in the 70s and 80s the best footballer in the world! “

Beckenbauer is still obsessed with images: “The way I saw him for the first time and he turned against us was fantastic. We only lost 1-0, but the Argentines were kind.”

Subsequently, the paths of Beckenbauer and Maradona crossed again and again “at FIFA events and so on,” the German said. “It was always someone who came to you and shook your hand – Europeans could learn something from that. Always friendly, always kind, a real personality.”

Beckenbauer also knew: “He had problems, he couldn’t hide them. But the way I knew and lived him – respect and respect.”

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