John Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Franz Beckenbauer passed away on Sunday aged 78. “Der Kaiser” played at Villa Park during the 1966 World Cup against Argentina and Spain. He had the job of man marking Bobby Charlton in the final, as did Bobby him. He was a ball playing defender (sweeper/libero), who was comfortable on the ball and dangerous when moving forwards with it. He won the European Cup three times with Bayern Munich and he twice won the Ballon d’Or. He captained West Germany when they won the European Championship in 1972 and the World Cup in 1974, and he later managed them to another World Cup win in 1990. He might also have managed Aston Villa. When HDE was looking for a replacement for Graham Taylor (according to his book “Deadly”) he thought of Franz, having once shared a meal with “Der Kaiser” and his wife. HDE rang his home to establish whether he would be interested in the Villa job and a lady answered. Our then chairman “chatted to her for a moment or two on the basis that, as she would no doubt recall, we had dined together (how could she possibly forget) and had also met at the (Austrian) Ski resort. After a while she broke in and said: “I’m sorry I think you must have the wrong wife”. HDE continued, “How was I to know that, in the interim he had changed partners? However, I passed on the message he could ring me if he were interested in being Aston Villa’s manager, but he never did take up the option. “That of course, could depend on whether the “wrong wife” ever passed on my message”. So it could possibly have been Beckenbauer rather than Dr Jo Venglos who took over the Division 1 Runners-Up in 1990. Another in the long list of “What If’s” that is associated with our late chairman. One thing that is for sure is that a great player and a very decent manager (now is not the time to raise the matter of FIFA investigations of his later financial dealings imo) is no longer with us. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mottaloo Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Another one of deadly's billy bullshit tales, no doubt. I recall his wife Heidi is/was german but that's probably about as near as he got to signing der kaiser ! To be filed alongside Juninho and Robbie Keane "nearlies" 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mjmooney Posted January 10 VT Supporter Share Posted January 10 As soon as I saw the thread title I knew this was going to be another Ellis bullshit story. 2 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GlobalVillan Posted January 10 Share Posted January 10 Who needs Der Kaiser when you've got Der Hammer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaJ100 Posted January 12 Share Posted January 12 Probably told her about how he invented the overhead kick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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