Liberos might not exist but Beckenbauer’s soul is still integral part of modern football
It was a slap that changed the course of German football. Growing up in Giesing, a war-ravaged working-class suburb of Munich, now in the vicinity of the Olympic Stadium, young Franz Beckenbauer was a pacy centre forward who wanted to play for 1860 Munich, the strongest German club in the 1950s. But as destiny charted, during an U-14 game for local team SC 1906, he was fiercely marked and supposedly slapped by Gerhard König, the 1860 youth team defender. In anger, he refused to join 1860 and signed for then minnows, Bayern Munich.
At Munich, a sharp youth coach realised that he was so skillful and quick, he was prone to rugged tackles and injuries. So he decided to hide him in the midfield, probably knowing that the kid was so intelligent and technically sound that his attacking prowess...