souvenir
Beckenbauer Cup? Thon and Lemke like Vogts’ suggestion
Berti Vogts (r) mourns Franz Beckenbauer, who died on Sunday. photo
© Oliver Hurst/dpa
Future generations of footballers should not forget the Emperor, warns former national coach Vogts – and suggests naming the DFB Cup after Franz Beckenbauer. He already has two colleagues.
Olaf Thon likes former national coach Berti Vogts’ suggestion of the DFB Cup To name Franz Beckenbauer.
“That’s not a bad idea,” said the 1990 world champion in an interview with Bayerischer Rundfunk. After Beckenbauer’s death on Sunday, Vogts warned that his name should not be forgotten by the following generations of footballers and said in an interview with the “Rheinische Post”: “Perhaps the DFB should think about it, for example the DFB Cup Franz Beckenbauer.”
Like Thon and Vogts, Willi Lemke can also imagine a name change. “Football Germany would think that was very good,” said the former manager of SV Werder Bremen in an interview with “Welt TV” on Tuesday. Beckenbauer was “the superstar of the last few decades in German football” and an “absolute world star”. The suggestion was “definitely appropriate,” said Lemke, but the German Football Association would have to decide on it. He did not want to comment on the proposal for the time being.
“Charming, lovable and great person”
The corruption allegations against Beckenbauer in the context of the awarding of the 2006 World Cup to Germany do not represent an obstacle for Lemke: “The Germans are always checking to see whether there is anything left to criticize. I think we shouldn’t put Franz Beckenbauer in this corner,” said the 77 year old. Furthermore, the events were never clarified.
Lemke explained that Beckenbauer had received millions in compensation for his voluntary work for the DFB. But he thinks of Franz Beckenbauer “as a very charming, lovable, great person, the footballer, but also the family man, the comrade and the friend. That’s how I experienced him and that’s how I’ll never forget him.”
Thon paid tribute to Beckenbauer, who died at the age of 78, as a warm-hearted person. “When he came into the room, there was always more light than before,” said the 57-year-old from Gelsenkirchen, who played for FC Bayern from 1988 to 1994. “The warmth with which he treated every employee was what was special.”
During his time at FC Bayern, he and his coach Beckenbauer “always took snuff together in the morning” as a greeting, Thon also reported: “So with Franz you could also drink a nice red wine in the evening.” For him he was the “greatest of all”. In 1994 Thon became German champion under interim coach Beckenbauer.