Franz Beckenbauer is a member of the exclusive world champion club


Franz Beckenbauer is one of only three men to have won the World Cup as both a player and a coach.

Here the PA news agency takes a look at the members of football’s most exclusive club.

Mario Zagallo

No one can boast more success at a World Cup than Brazilian Mario Zagallo, who died at the weekend at the age of 92. Zagallo played alongside the 17-year-old Pelé in the 1958 final when Brazil won the title for the first time three times in 12 years in 1958 with a 5-2 victory over hosts Sweden and repeated the feat four years later in Chile when they defeated Czechoslovakia 3-1 in the final. He was in the dugout when arguably the best team ever to appear in the competition won the treble with a 4-1 win over Italy in Mexico City in 1970, and served as assistant to Carlos Alberta Parreira when they won the treble Italians defeated on penalties at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena in 1994.

Franz Beckenbauer

The West German Beckenbauer – or “The Emperor” as he was known to his adoring fans – suffered the disappointment of defeat by England in the 1966 final at Wembley, a game in which he and the late Sir Bobby Charlton famously eliminated each other Geoff Hurst scored a hat-trick, which later earned him a knighthood. The Germans, who ended England’s title defense in the quarter-finals in Mexico four years later, had to wait until 1974 for captain Beckenbauer to get his hands on the trophy on home soil after Johan Neeskens converted an early penalty to win the Netherlands 2: 1 in the final. As coach, he repeated this feat in 1990 when his team beat Sir Bobby Robson’s England on penalties in the semi-finals and Andreas Brehme beat Argentina on penalties at the Stadio Olimpico in Rome.

Didier Deschamps

Defensive midfielder Deschamps, disparagingly dismissed as a “water carrier” by his former teammate Eric Cantona, captained hosts France to their first World Cup title in 1998 when they beat Brazil 3-0 in the final. Twenty years later he picked up a second winners’ medal, this time as manager, when he led his team to a 4-2 final victory over Croatia in Moscow. Deschamps might have performed a step better than Zagallo and Beckenbauer in 2022 if not for the resilience of Lionel Messi’s Argentina, who emerged winners on penalties in Qatar after Kylian Mbappe scored a hat-trick in a thrilling 3-3 draw.

Have any Question or Comment?

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *