'Danke Franz': Germany lights a candle for football icon Beckenbauer
Residents in Beckenbauer's home city of Munich braved the freezing cold to pay their respects, bringing flowers a day after the death was announced of Germany's greatest football icon, a World Cup winner as both player and manager. The headquarters of Bayern Munich on Saebener Strasse were a point of pilgrimage for fans of Beckenbauer, who spent most of his playing career at the club, winning four of his five Bundesliga titles and three European Cups in 1974, 1975 and 1976.
"Brazil had Pele, Argentina had (Diego) Maradona. As a German, I don't want to belittle the others, but Franz Beckenbauer is the greatest for me," Henryk Mnich, 49, told AFP outside the club's offices. Flowers were placed in front of the building in Munich and a candle lit in honour of Beckenbauer, who passed away at the age of 78 on Sunday.
Playing alongside the likes of Gerd Mueller and Sepp Maier in the 1960s and 1970s, Beckenbauer helped Bayern on the way to becoming one of the world's top footballing powers. Subsequently, Beckenbauer steered the club to further successes as president of the club between 1994 and 2009, working together with former Bayern teammates Uli Hoeness and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge. "I will never forget you, as a teammate, as a sportsman but above all as a man," Maier wrote on the Sport1 website.
The words "Danke Franz" ("Thank you, Franz") will be projected in tribute onto Bayern's stadium, the Allianz Arena, over the coming days. The commemorations are set to continue at Bayern's next home match against Hoffenheim on Friday night in the league. The rest of the Bundesliga will pay tribute to Beckenbauer with a minute's silence before kickoff ahead of this weekend's fixtures as the teams return from their winter break.
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