The football world will pay tribute to the German icon, affectionately known as ‘Der Kaiser’, who passed away earlier this year.
UEFA will honour the late German football icon Franz Beckenbauer at the UEFA EURO 2024 opening ceremony ahead of the host nation’s clash against Scotland at the Munich Football Arena (21:00 CET) on Friday.
Germany’s two living UEFA European Championship winning captains, Bernard Dietz (1980) and Jürgen Klinsmann (1996), will be joined by Beckenbauer’s wife Heidi as they bring the Henri Delaunay Cup – the trophy which will be presented to the winners after the final in Berlin on 14 July – onto the pitch before the tournament gets underway, ensuring all three of Germany’s UEFA EURO triumphs are represented at the ceremony.
The Munich Football Arena will stage Friday’s opening UEFA EURO 2024 match
An extraordinary figure who shaped German football like no other, Beckenbauer captained West Germany to the 1972 UEFA European Championship and 1974 FIFA World Cup glory as a player while he also led them to the 1990 FIFA World Cup as coach. He was part of the Bayern Munich team that won three successive European Cups between 1974 and 1976, while he also lifted five Bundesliga titles (four as a player and one as coach) in a highly decorated career. A recipient of the UEFA President’s Award in 2013, Beckenbauer passed away in January aged 78.