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5 unusual facts about Franz Beckenbauer


1974–75 Leeds United A.F.C. season

The German side won 2-0 with two goals in 10 minutes late in the second half - but Leeds could have won the match, having denied two strong penalty appeals for fouls by Bayern's Franz Beckenbauer.

Goleo and Pille

Goleo was unveiled as the World Cup mascot on November 13, 2004 during the German television program Wetten, dass..?, presented by Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer.

György Rózsahegyi

This way he managed to draw countless world famous personalities, from Liz Taylor to Roger Moore, from Pelé to Franz Beckenbauer, from Alberto Moravia to Pablo Neruda, from Helmut Schmidt to Fidel Castro.

Karl Hopfner

Uli Hoeneß and Franz Beckenbauer have credited Hopfner with putting the club in a strong financial position.

Mike de Vries

The first communications projects included support for the thirty-one country tour with Franz Beckenbauer, the "Welcome to Germany" initiative, the "Walk of Ideas" sculpture (which received the 2006 EVA Award, the Golden Flame Award and the German PR prize of 2007), as well as "365 places in the land of ideas" (a series of events that received the European Excellence Award).


Fernando Redondo

Since entering retirement, Redondo often appeared in many high profile exhibition matches contested by select squads of past and present footballing greats, including; Franco Baresi, Franz Beckenbauer, Frank Rijkaard, Ruud Gullit, Zlatko Zahovič, Aleksandr Mostovoi, Marco van Basten and Tony Yeboah, amongst others.

Michel Kitabdjian

Michel Kitabdjian (born 7 May 1930 in Nice) was the French referee who officiated the infamous 1975 European Cup Final between Leeds United and Bayern Munich in which he had disallowed a goal by Leeds United's Peter Lorimer for offside and denied Leeds two penalty appeals as Franz Beckenbauer first handled the ball in the box and then brought down Allan Clarke in a tackle.

Roman Strobl

Chainsaw portraits of Bruno Bruni at an exhibition in Ahrensburg, in 2001, as well as Gerhard Schröder and Franz Beckenbauer, at the 2002 Expo in Hanover were to follow.


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