Jürgen Klopp pays tribute to Franz Beckenbauer
Jürgen, we are speaking after the very sad news of Franz Beckenbauer’s passing. Firstly, can you tell us your reflections on the news, please?
Yeah, yesterday was a very sad day when I got the news and I should probably start with the most important thing: my condolences to the family of Franz Beckenbauer, and my heartfelt condolences. The German media asked me yesterday pretty quickly after the news broke to have a few words but I couldn’t, I had to process it because Franz was a really big part of my life. I told him once, ‘I know you much better than you will ever know me because I’ve known you since I can think,’ and I loved him from the first day when I saw him playing because it was just so different, so special.
Then I got the privilege to get to know him a little bit better around the World Cup 2006 and already in 2005 [with] the Confederations Cup, and realised a few things: first and foremost that he is the best person to meet ever, he was really good company, he was funny, he was intelligent – he was everything you want to be yourself, pretty much. And he taught me something that I didn’t know at that time that I will need in my life: that you can be famous, you can be a lot in the media, everybody is talking about you and you still can be absolutely yourself – and it was Franz Beckenbauer.
He was a fantastic person; Germany’s best footballer ever, but he was an even better person and that’s really difficult to reach but he did that. We had contact from time to time and it was always great to talk to him, it was always great to meet him and yeah, the world will be a completely different place without him and that was the thing I really had to process because I don’t know a world without him. That is the first day pretty much and it is a different place, let me say it like that. We will miss him, and I will miss him a lot.
His is an iconic name in the history of football and he is in that pantheon of legendary figures such as Pele, Diego Maradona and Johan Cruyff. Can you describe his legacy as a player and a coach?
I am not sure I can describe it, I was at that time not close enough – I was seven years old when he became world champion and he was already 29 years old then so that means he had played before World Cups, he played with a shoulder injury, he made the game look so easy it was incredible. So, that’s something and he created a position: I think Carra [Jamie Carragher] said it yesterday that if you wanted to play out as a kid and you couldn’t do it everybody said, ‘Oh, you think you are Beckenbauer!’ so that is something really, really special.
Becoming world champion as a player in 1974, becoming world champion as a manager in 1990, is a special achievement. The way he did it – light-hearted, friendly, laughing, serious in the right moments – this was really inspirational. He never pretended to be better than he was, he knew always that he needed help, especially as a manager. We called him the ‘team chef’, the coach at that time was Holger Osieck I think so he knew exactly that he needed that, but he had a sensational relationship with the players in the team at that time and he made that happen through that. He brought the World Cup 2006 to Germany, which was the greatest event in my country ever that I experienced. Germany presented itself in that time in the best possible way and it was all led by him and it was all made possible by him.
And the fun part… Pele came over and they were obviously really good mates so when we had a TV show and I was there as an expert or a pundit and Franz came in and then Pele came in and I honestly thought, ‘How on Earth can my life get better from this point?!’ I had the two greatest players of the game of all time of my mind standing next to me and it was just nice to see how they are, how they behaved, how respectful they were, how friendly they were. It was a life-changing experience for me, to be honest.
And how I said, I never knew that I will be in the position I am in today, when more people know me than I can imagine, but if somebody thinks when he meets me that I am still the guy you would expect me to be – I don’t know if I would be able to do that if I wouldn’t have met him, and the other guy as well because Pele was pretty special as well. So, yeah, he was not only the best player we ever had, he probably was the most influential person in football we ever had and he used that for the best things. So, how I said, I don’t want to sound like a broken record but the world will be really a different place without him, at least for me.
The warmth in your words is really coming through when you speak about him, it sounds like he’s had a huge impact on you both personally and professionally…
He had, he had. Look, even the greatest have to go one day so he had 78 years, he had a wonderful family around him. Just yesterday when the news broke I had to look because recently around his 75th birthday, so three years ago, Heidi, his wife, asked me to record a video message for the birthday and I told him the short summary of what I told you now. I watched it yesterday and it was really tough because I realised then that he probably saw that, he saw it definitely, and so I could tell him that because it is nothing you would say to somebody in a phone call. So, I am fine with that. A few months ago we had a phone call and he was alright but you realised he was not in a top shape and he is now in a better place. But still, we all will miss him.
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