Franz grew up in Munich in the post-war years. The family could not afford a leather ball or soccer shoes. Franz therefore had to pursue his passion with balls of wool and in converted ski boots.
In a modest neighborhood in Giesing, where the Beckenbauer family lived with several generations under one roof, young Franz grew up. The apartment was small, the circumstances simple, but they did not live in want. Franz was a delicate boy, often slight and with a weak circulation, but he learned early on to balance his physical disadvantages with skill and a joy for movement.
A special moment shaped his childhood when, in 1954, he stood on a wooden shack cheering on the returning World Cup champions. From then on, it was clear to him: football was his world. His mother supported Franz in everything he wanted to do, even though his father initially had little interest in football. And so, the meadow by the sports ground of SC München 06, right outside their home, became Franz’s second home. At first, he kicked around with a ball of yarn, later with a real leather ball that he and his friends saved up for by delivering newspapers and collecting old paper.
Franz often played barefoot in the beginning, which frequently left him with bloody toes. As he later recounted in interviews, this helped him learn to handle the ball more naturally than with football boots and develop a special technique. His first team was called “Bowazu,” an abbreviation of the streets around the football pitch: Bonifatiusstraße, Watzmannstraße, and Zugspitzstraße. At just five years old, he played his first matches and immediately showed his talent: confident on the ball and agile. Despite his age, Franz was soon better than all his teammates.
At the age of eight, Franz joined his first official club, SC München 06. But when the club ran into difficulties four years later, he was forced to look for a new team.
There were two clubs to choose from: at the time, the city’s most successful club, TSV 1860, and the still small, less successful FC Bayern. For Franz, it actually seemed clear that he would join 1860. But shortly before the transfer, a player from the “Lions” gave him a Watschn (slap). The humiliation struck so deeply that Franz made one of the most important decisions of his life: he would not go to 1860. And so, he ultimately joined FC Bayern.
