Franz Beckenbauer played in three World Cups, 1966, 1970 and 1974, and coached West Germany at two more, in 1986 and 1990. As a player he made 18 appearances and scored 5 goals. He won the tournament twice, in 1974 and 1990: the first time as captain, in Munich, the second as the man in charge, in Rome.
He is one of three men to have won the World Cup as a player and as a coach, with Mário Zagallo and Didier Deschamps, and he was the first to do it as captain and then as coach. That makes the Beckenbauer World Cup record an odd one to put in a table. It runs over 24 years and two jobs, so we have put both careers in the same one, then every match he played, every match he coached, and the afternoon in Mexico City when he finished a semi-final with his arm in a sling.
Franz Beckenbauer’s World Cup record, as player and coach
| Tournament | Role | Age | Matches | Goals | Won-drawn-lost | West Germany’s finish |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1966, England | Player | 20 | 6 | 4 | 4-1-1 | Runners-up |
| 1970, Mexico | Player | 24 | 5 | 1 | 4-0-1 | Third place |
| 1974, West Germany | Player, captain | 28 | 7 | 0 | 6-0-1 | Champions |
| 1986, Mexico | Coach | 40 | 7 | — | 3-2-2 | Runners-up |
| 1990, Italy | Coach | 44 | 7 | — | 5-2-0 | Champions |
| As a player | 18 | 5 | 14-1-3 | |||
| As a coach | 14 | 8-4-2 |
Read across the rows and the two careers look strangely alike. In both he lost a final before he won one. As a player it was England in 1966, then the Netherlands in 1974. As a coach it was Argentina both times, in 1986 and again in 1990. Over 32 World Cup matches, on the pitch or on the bench, West Germany won 22, drew 5 and lost 5.
Every World Cup match Beckenbauer played
| Date | Stage | Opponent | West Germany’s result | Beckenbauer | Goals | Minute of each goal |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 12 July 1966 | Group stage | Switzerland | 5-0 | Started | 2 | 40, 52 |
| 16 July 1966 | Group stage | Argentina | 0-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 20 July 1966 | Group stage | Spain | 2-1 | Started | 0 | — |
| 23 July 1966 | Quarter-final | Uruguay | 4-0 | Started | 1 | 70 |
| 25 July 1966 | Semi-final | Soviet Union | 2-1 | Started | 1 | 67 |
| 30 July 1966 | Final | England | 2-4 a.e.t. | Started | 0 | — |
| 3 June 1970 | Group stage | Morocco | 2-1 | Started | 0 | — |
| 7 June 1970 | Group stage | Bulgaria | 5-2 | Started, substituted 72 | 0 | — |
| 10 June 1970 | Group stage | Peru | 3-1 | Started | 0 | — |
| 14 June 1970 | Quarter-final | England | 3-2 a.e.t. | Started | 1 | 68 |
| 17 June 1970 | Semi-final | Italy | 3-4 a.e.t. | Started | 0 | — |
| 20 June 1970 | Third place | Uruguay | 1-0 | Did not play | — | — |
| 14 June 1974 | Group stage | Chile | 1-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 18 June 1974 | Group stage | Australia | 3-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 22 June 1974 | Group stage | East Germany | 0-1 | Started | 0 | — |
| 26 June 1974 | Second round | Yugoslavia | 2-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 30 June 1974 | Second round | Sweden | 4-2 | Started | 0 | — |
| 3 July 1974 | Second round | Poland | 1-0 | Started | 0 | — |
| 7 July 1974 | Final | Netherlands | 2-1 | Started | 0 | — |
He started all 18 matches he played and was substituted once, after 72 minutes against Bulgaria in 1970, with West Germany already 4-1 up. They won 14 of those games, drew 1 and lost 3, scoring 44 goals and conceding 20. Uwe Seeler was captain in 1966 and 1970. In 1974 the armband was Beckenbauer’s for all seven matches. The only World Cup game he missed was the third-place match in Mexico City in 1970, three days after the semi-final.
1966: two goals in his first World Cup match
He was 20 when the tournament started in England, and he played every minute of West Germany’s six matches. The first, against Switzerland at Hillsborough in Sheffield, brought him two goals in a 5-0 win, one five minutes before half-time and one seven minutes after it.
A 0-0 draw with Argentina and a 2-1 win over Spain put West Germany through as group winners. He then scored in both knockout rounds before the final: the second goal in a 4-0 quarter-final win over Uruguay, again at Hillsborough, and the second in a 2-1 semi-final win over the Soviet Union at Goodison Park.
FIFA’s match records and Wikipedia both show him cautioned twice, against Argentina and in the semi-final. There were no yellow or red cards yet. They arrived at the next World Cup, in 1970.
The 1966 final: Beckenbauer against Bobby Charlton
At Wembley on 30 July, Helmut Schön gave Beckenbauer one job, which was to follow Bobby Charlton. Alf Ramsey gave Charlton the same instruction in reverse. Two of the best players on the pitch spent the afternoon cancelling each other out, and the final was decided by other people.
Helmut Haller put West Germany ahead, Wolfgang Weber equalised in the last minute of normal time, and Geoff Hurst’s hat-trick, the first ever scored in a World Cup final, won it 4-2 for England after extra time.
Beckenbauer went home with a runners-up medal, the award for the best young player and four goals. That put him level with Hurst, Ferenc Bene and Valeriy Porkujan, behind Haller’s six and Eusébio‘s nine. Not bad for a 20-year-old midfielder.
1970: the goal against England and the arm in a sling
Four years later he was still in midfield, and West Germany won all three group games in León. The quarter-final, also in León, was a rematch of the Wembley final against the holders, and early in the second half England led 2-0.
Beckenbauer started the comeback. He scored after 68 minutes to make it 2-1, and soon afterwards Ramsey took Charlton off. Uwe Seeler headed the equaliser eight minutes from time and Gerd Müller won it 3-2 in extra time. England, the champions, were out.
Three days later came the semi-final against Italy at the Azteca, the match that became known as the Game of the Century. Beckenbauer dislocated his shoulder after being fouled. West Germany had already made both of the substitutions the rules allowed, so he stayed on with his arm strapped to his body in a sling. Italy won 4-3, and five of the seven goals came in extra time.
He did not play in the third-place match, which West Germany won 1-0 against Uruguay. For us the sling is the real picture of his second World Cup, more than the goal that knocked out the champions.
1974: captain, sweeper and world champion at home
By 1974 Beckenbauer was playing behind the defence, as the free man the Italians call the libero, and he was captain. The World Cup was in West Germany, and two years earlier the same team had won the European Championship.
The group stage had one bad result. After wins over Chile and Australia, West Germany lost 1-0 to East Germany in Hamburg, to a Jürgen Sparwasser goal after 77 minutes, at the only World Cup East Germany ever played. Both teams went through anyway, West Germany in second place.
There were no semi-finals in 1974. The second round was two groups of four, and the winners went straight to the final. West Germany beat Yugoslavia 2-0 and Sweden 4-2, then Poland 1-0 in Frankfurt, with a Müller goal after 76 minutes. RSSSF notes that Jan Tomaszewski had saved an Uli Hoeness penalty earlier in that half.
The 1974 final against Johan Cruyff’s Netherlands
The final in Munich on 7 July started badly. Johan Neeskens scored a penalty for the Netherlands in the second minute. Paul Breitner equalised from the spot after 25 minutes, and Müller scored the winner two minutes before half-time. Beckenbauer and his defenders marked Johan Cruyff so closely that the Dutch never really got their Total Football going, and it finished 2-1.
Beckenbauer was the first captain to lift the new World Cup trophy, made after Brazil kept the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1970. West Germany were also the first European team to hold the European Championship and the World Cup at the same time. France and Spain have done it since, Spain twice. Years later Beckenbauer is quoted as saying that Cruyff was the better player, but he was world champion. It is a fair summary of that final.
What position did Beckenbauer play?
He started out as a centre-forward in youth football. At his first two World Cups he was a midfielder, paired with Wolfgang Overath in a two-man midfield. By 1974 he was a sweeper, the defender who plays behind the others and brings the ball out of defence, and he is often credited with inventing the modern version of the role.
That explains the goals column. All five of his World Cup goals came as a midfielder, four in 1966 and one in 1970. As a sweeper in 1974 he played seven matches, won the tournament and did not score.
Beckenbauer as coach: 1986 and 1990
Beckenbauer replaced Jupp Derwall as West Germany’s manager on 12 September 1984. Two years later he took the team to Mexico, and six years later to Italy. These are all 14 World Cup matches he was in charge of.
| Date | Stage | Opponent | West Germany’s result | West Germany’s scorers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 4 June 1986 | Group stage | Uruguay | 1-1 | Allofs |
| 8 June 1986 | Group stage | Scotland | 2-1 | Völler, Allofs |
| 13 June 1986 | Group stage | Denmark | 0-2 | — |
| 17 June 1986 | Round of 16 | Morocco | 1-0 | Matthäus |
| 21 June 1986 | Quarter-final | Mexico | 0-0 a.e.t., won 4-1 on penalties | — |
| 25 June 1986 | Semi-final | France | 2-0 | Brehme, Völler |
| 29 June 1986 | Final | Argentina | 2-3 | Rummenigge, Völler |
| 10 June 1990 | Group stage | Yugoslavia | 4-1 | Matthäus 2, Klinsmann, Völler |
| 15 June 1990 | Group stage | United Arab Emirates | 5-1 | Völler 2, Klinsmann, Matthäus, Bein |
| 19 June 1990 | Group stage | Colombia | 1-1 | Littbarski |
| 24 June 1990 | Round of 16 | Netherlands | 2-1 | Klinsmann, Brehme |
| 1 July 1990 | Quarter-final | Czechoslovakia | 1-0 | Matthäus (pen.) |
| 4 July 1990 | Semi-final | England | 1-1 a.e.t., won 4-3 on penalties | Brehme |
| 8 July 1990 | Final | Argentina | 1-0 | Brehme (pen.) |
Mexico 1986 was not a smooth run. West Germany drew with Uruguay, beat Scotland and lost 2-0 to Denmark, then needed a late Lothar Matthäus free kick to get past Morocco in the round of 16. The quarter-final against the hosts finished 0-0 and West Germany won the shoot-out 4-1. In the semi-final they beat Michel Platini‘s France 2-0, as they had four years earlier.
The final against Argentina at the Azteca looked lost at 2-0 after 56 minutes. Karl-Heinz Rummenigge pulled one back after 74 minutes and Rudi Völler equalised with less than ten minutes left. Three minutes later Diego Maradona slipped Jorge Burruchaga through and Argentina won 3-2.
Italy 1990 went better from the start. West Germany played their first five matches at San Siro in Milan and scored nine goals in the first two, against Yugoslavia and the United Arab Emirates. They beat the Netherlands 2-1 in the round of 16, in a game where Völler and Frank Rijkaard were both sent off after 22 minutes, and a Matthäus penalty was enough against Czechoslovakia in the quarter-final.
The semi-final against England in Turin finished 1-1 after extra time, and West Germany won the shoot-out 4-3. The final in Rome on 8 July was a rematch of 1986 and a bad-tempered one. Argentina had two players sent off, Pedro Monzón and Gustavo Dezotti, and Andreas Brehme scored the only goal from a penalty five minutes from time.
West Germany were unbeaten in Italy, with five wins and two draws. It was also the last West German team at a World Cup: the country was reunified three months later. His record as a coach at World Cups is 14 matches, 8 wins, 4 draws and 2 defeats, with 23 goals scored and 12 conceded. Two of those four draws were won on penalties.
Three men who won the World Cup as player and coach
| Name | Country | Won as a player | Won as a coach |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mário Zagallo | Brazil | 1958, 1962 | 1970 |
| Franz Beckenbauer | West Germany | 1974, as captain | 1990 |
| Didier Deschamps | France | 1998, as captain | 2018 |
Zagallo got there first, in 1970, twelve years after his first title as a player. Beckenbauer was the first to win it as captain and then as coach, 16 years apart. Deschamps followed him in 2018, 20 years after he lifted the trophy at the Stade de France. Beckenbauer reached four World Cup finals in all, two as a player and two as a coach, and won two of them.
Deschamps left the France job after the 2026 World Cup and was replaced by Zinedine Zidane, who won the World Cup as a player in 1998. If France win in 2030, there will be a fourth name in that table.
Beckenbauer’s World Cup honours
He was named in the all-star team at all three tournaments he played, won the best young player award in 1966 and was picked in FIFA’s World Cup Dream Team in 2002. He won 103 caps for West Germany and scored 14 goals. Away from the World Cup, he is the only defender to have won the Ballon d’Or twice.
After the World Cup
Beckenbauer led Germany’s bid for the 2006 World Cup and chaired its organising committee. His name as an administrator was later damaged by investigations into how that tournament and others were awarded. The investigation over 2006 was closed in 2020 without a verdict, because the time limit for bringing charges had run out.
He died on 7 January 2024, aged 78, of natural causes, his family said in a statement to the German press agency dpa. A memorial service was held at the Allianz Arena in Munich on 19 January. His 18 matches as a player sit with the others on our player profiles page, and all five of his tournaments are in the World Cup winners list.
Sources and method
RSSSF’s match records for 1966, 1970, 1974, 1986 and 1990; FIFA’s match centre for all 33 West Germany matches at those tournaments; Wikipedia’s pages on Franz Beckenbauer, 1966 Group 2, the 1966 knockout stage and the 1970 knockout stage.
Appearances, results, scorers and cautions were recounted from RSSSF and checked against FIFA and Wikipedia. Only matches at World Cup final tournaments count; qualifiers do not, and goals in penalty shoot-outs are left out. A match decided on penalties counts as a draw. His age is calculated from his date of birth, 11 September 1945. The rules are in How we verify.
Where the sources disagree
The sources agree on every match he played or coached, every result and every scorer. They differ by a minute on three of his five goals, and RSSSF does not list cautions for 1966.
| Event | FIFA | Wikipedia | RSSSF | Used |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| First goal v Switzerland, 1966 | 39′ | 40′ | 40′ | 40′ |
| Goal v Soviet Union, 1966 | 67′ | 67′ | 68′ | 67′ |
| Goal v England, 1970 | 68′ | 68′ in the match report, 69′ in his biography | 69′ | 68′ |
| Cautions in 1966 | 48′ and 72′ | 48′ and 72′ | Not listed | 48′ and 72′ |