Franz Beckenbauer, a World Cup winner as a player and a coach who became the defining figure in German soccer for more than half a century, died on Sunday. He was 78.
He died at his home, his family confirmed in a statement. The statement did not specify where he lived or state the cause of death. His relatives had previously suggested to German media outlets that he was in failing health.
Known throughout an illustrious, trophy-laden career as “Der Kaiser,” Beckenbauer had retreated from public view in recent years, buffeted by the death of one of his five children, Stephan, from a brain tumor in 2015, and by a heart bypass operation the next year.
Before then he had been a totemic, magnetic presence in both German soccer and German public life. He was a player, a defender of unusual poise and elegance. He was a coach, exhibiting a deft touch and an easy manner with his players. And he was an executive, showing himself to be a skilled diplomat and consummate networker.
Most of all, though, Beckenbauer was a winner. He won relentlessly at Bayern Munich, the club he joined as a teenager and with which he became so intertwined that Uli Hoeness, its longtime president, called him the “greatest personality” in its history.
