ANOTHER LEGEND LEAVES US
Building an all-time male football XI can be a fun or a tedious affair, depending on whether you decide to share your selections on the internet. Some of the positions are, of course, up for debate but this is too short a tea-timely email to get into that discussion. There are, however, half-a-dozen players who are automatic picks. Lev Yashin, Paolo Maldini, Diego Maradona, Leo Messi, Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. They are The Untouchables or The Non-Negotiables, to give them their slightly less catchy nickname. No Greatest XI can be built without these six, nor shall it be. Regrettably, Cruyff, CR7, R9, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Di Stéfano, Puskas, Charlton and co are all going to have to fit around them. And no, you can’t have Zizou as a holding midfielder.
Beckenbauer is the greatest centre-back of all time. Those in England will shout for Bobby Moore, and in Italy there will be calls for Franco Baresi. But they are just contenders, understudies, sous chefs. Beckenbauer could cook, alright, combining Franco Baresi’s longevity, Moore’s intelligence, Koeman’s goals, Nesta’s bravery (playing the extra time of the 1970 World Cup semi-final against Italy – widely known as the ‘Match of the Century’ – with a dislocated shoulder and an arm in a sling), Ramos’s aggression into one extremely sentient being that elevated both Bayern Munich and West Germany to the top of the sport.
Twice the winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1972 and 1976, he won a European Championship with West Germany and three consecutive Big Cups with Bayern in the 1970s, five German league titles in three different decades and is one of only three players to win the World Cup as a player and manager. When he joined Bayern, they were not even permitted a place in the newly-founded Bundesliga. As a player, manager and later behind the scenes, they grew into a global giant. Can anyone claim to have had a bigger influence on a single club?
Of course, things could have been so different. Beckenbauer was just a slap away from joining Bayern’s rivals, 1860 Munich, as a young lad. In 1958, playing for under-14 local side SC 1906 as a striker against 1860, he had an altercation with opposing centre-half Gerhard König, who aimed a slap at Beckenbauer. The incident convinced Franz to change his plans of joining 1860. Instead, Bayern came calling. “It was just fate that we both came together, and that I became a Red and not a Blue,” Beckenbauer told Bayerischer Rundfunk in a 2010 interview, alongside König. 1860’s loss was Bayern’s gain. The rest is history.
The Emperor is dead at 78. There will not be a successor. Time comes for everyone, even those that seem immortal. In later life, Beckenbauer battled health issues as well as accusations of wrongdoing over suspected corruption linked to the 2006 World Cup. But now the libero is free again.
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QUOTE OF THE DAY
“[I was] crying almost every day for no reason. Tears were coming alone. Why I don’t know, but maybe they were there for a very long time. Technically, it wasn’t me, it was the young me [crying for] everything he didn’t get: approval” – Thierry Henry opens up about his struggles with mental health and depression during his career.
TOP 100
Our top 100 female footballers in the world for 2023 countdown begins with ♫♮♪ cue Pick of the Pops music ♫♮♪ Nos 100-71.
FOOTBALL DAILY LETTERS
As the great Danny Baker used to say, ‘there’s a reason why the bookmakers have six tills to pay in and one to pay out.’ It’s to pay for this sort of thing” – Noble Francis.
So glad you brought up yesterday that amazing scene from Pulp Fiction when our two ‘heroes’ get major lead shot at them but don’t get hit (yesterday’s Football Daily). I was however shocked to read you referring to the subsequent discussion as a ‘philosophical debate’. In fact, Vincent rightly refers to the discussion as a theological one. As a professor of theology I use this clip to demonstrate to my students the two main conflicting approaches to the nature of miracles. And as a theologian I get upset when my discipline is incorrectly labelled. Rather like José Mourinho yelling at the officials, I have lost control and I am yelling at you. So there” – George Ferzoco.
Send your letters to the.boss@theguardian.com. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … George Ferzoco.
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