Franz Beckenbauer won three straight Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich. - © IMAGO
Franz Beckenbauer won three straight Bundesliga titles with Bayern Munich. - © IMAGO
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Franz Beckenbauer: a legendary career in numbers

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Franz Beckenbauer goes down in history as one of the greatest and most influential footballers ever. During his career as a player and a coach, Der Kaiser set a number of records on his way to becoming a legend.

1 – Beckenbauer played his first Bundesliga game on 14 August 1965, with Bayern losing 1-0 to city rivals 1860. Almost 12 years later, Beckenbauer played his last Bundesliga match for Bayern on 21 May 1977 in a 2-2 draw with Borussia Mönchengladbach.

1 – Bayern won their first Bundesliga title in 1968/69, and followed that up with the the Meisterschale in 1971/72, 1972/73 and 1973/74. Beckenbauer was the team’s leader and captained a side that later included the likes of Gerd Müller, Paul Breitner and Uli Hoeneß.

1 – Bayern became the first German club to win three consecutive league titles when they did so between 1972 and 1974.

1 – Beckenbauer’s debut for Hamburg on 15 November 1980 against VfB Stuttgart was also a memorable occasion. It was the first and only time he ever entered the pitch as a substitute in the Bundesliga.

1 – In 1990/91, Beckenbauer won the French league title as head coach of Marseille.

2 – Beckenbauer won the World Cup both as a player (1974) and as a coach (1990). Only two other people have achieved that feat: Brazil’s Mario Zagallo and France’s Didier Deschamps.

2 – Der Kaiser won the Ballon d’Or twice (in 1972 and 1976), becoming just the second German player after Gerd Müller (1970) to receive the accolade.

2 – As a player, Beckenbauer won the 1972 European Championship with Germany in Belgium, and followed that up with the World Cup triumph in his hometown of Munich in 1974. He also earned runners-up medals at the 1966 World Cup and the 1976 European Championship.

Watch: A tribute to the late, great Franz Beckenbauer

2 – Both before and after joining Hamburg, Beckenbauer laced his boots for the New York Cosmos (from July 1977 to June 1982 and again from May to November 1983).

3 – He won the North American Soccer League (NASL) title three times.

4 – Beckenbauer won the DFB Cup with Bayern on four occasions (1966, 1967, 1969, 1971).

4 – He was also crowned as Germany’s Footballer of the Year four times during his time at Bayern – a record that stands to this day.

4 – Beckenbauer scored four times in his maiden Bundesliga season in 1965/66, with his very first strike arriving on 18 September 1965 against Karlsruhe. He never managed to score more than six goals in a single campaign.

4 – It was not all success and glory for Beckenbauer, however. He only converted three of the six penalties he took, while his tally of four own goals is an unwanted Bundesliga record for a Bayern player.

5 – Beckenbauer’s last Bundesliga game was for Hamburg on 29 May 1982 against Karlsruhe – and he signed off by helping HSV win the Bundesliga title, his fifth overall.

Watch: Tributes pour in for Beckenbauer

12 – Der Kaiser laced his boots for Bayern for 12 seasons. In only one of those did he make fewer than 33 appearances (28 in 1967/68).

14 – Beckenbauer is 14th in the all-time appearance list for Germany’s national team with 103 caps (14 goals). He was the country's first centurion and held the record between 1973 and 1993, until he was overtaken by Lothar Matthäus, who is still the current holder with 150 caps.

18 – Beckenbauer oversaw 18 Bundesliga games as a coach, recording 10 wins, three draws and five defeats.

25 - Beckenbauer was part of the Bayern team that won 25 games during the 1972/73 season, setting a league record that wasn’t matched until Borussia Dortmund did so almost 40 years later in 2011/12. It was eventually beaten by Bayern in 2012/13 (29 wins).

66 – As coach, he took charge of 66 international games for Germany, taking over from Jupp Derwall in September 1984 until July 1990. Of those 66 fixtures he won 34, drew 20 and lost 12. His last  game was the triumphant 1990 World Cup final.

Watch: How Beckenbauer became Der Kaiser

101 – Bayern’s 1971/72 crop also set a record for goals scored that season, netting 101 times, with Beckenbauer on target with six himself. It is a total yet to be matched. 

1995/96 – He guided Bayern to their sole UEFA Cup triumph as coach in 1995/96.

424 -  Beckenbauer played in 424 Bundesliga games throughout his career: 396 for Bayern and 28 for Hamburg. He scored 44 goals, was never sent off and only received four yellow cards.