BAYERN LIFE February 2025
later Muhammad Ali – had a fight, we were given the best seats.“ At the time, Beckenbauer enjoyed just being one of the crowd, his teammate recalls. If they went to a restaurant incognito back then, the ushers and waiters were the only ones who would recognise them because they mostly came from countries with a footballing tradition.“ Franz in Munich was different to Franz in New York,“ says Roth,“ and this city suited his personality: Franz was very intellectual, very interested, very open – I don‘ t think he could have developed in the same way in Munich.“ At home, Roth believes,“ you‘ re always somewhere in your own world – but New York is a galaxy of its own“.
Cycling through Beijing
Despite his professionalism, Beckenbauer was always a fun teammate, Roth recalls. They once had an important game in Vancouver en route to their third league championship, and after the warm-up, the captain had another massage. As he was relaxing, he felt the click of a handcuff on his wrist: Beckenbauer had persuaded Pelé‘ s bodyguard to chain Roth to the massage bench for a laugh. The only problem was that the bodyguard had forgotten that, unusually, he‘ d left the keys at the hotel. With 15 minutes to go before kick-off in the important match, there was a certain amount of scrambling to get the captain free again in time. On another occasion, the Cosmos had arranged a softball game against a few reporters.“ When Franz hit the ball, he ran to third base instead of first base. We said he was out, but he asked how that could be, as it was much harder to sprint to third base, the distance was much longer.“ The others remained firm.“ Stupid rule,“ said Beckenbauer,“ the whole game would be much more interesting if you were allowed to run to any of the bases.“ Secretly, everyone thought he was somehow right that day. But out is out, they insisted.“ He then stomped off in a huff:‘ Just play on your own!’“ Roth remembers the Kaiser fuming,“ and then he spent the rest of the day with his head in a book.“
70 FC Bayern Magazine