Soccer Legend Beckenbauer, Who Won FIFA World Cup as Player & Coach, Passes Away

Germany’s football legend Franz Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup both as a player and coach, passed away at the age of 78.

“It is with deep sadness that we announce that my husband and our father, Franz Beckenbauer, passed away peacefully in his sleep yesterday, Sunday, surrounded by his family,” his family said in a statement to German news agency DPA, on Monday.

Beckenbauer suffered health problems in recent years.

Beckenbauer as a player captained West Germany to the World Cup title in 1974. He was the coach when West Germany won the FIFA World Cup in 1990.

Two days back Mario Zagallo of Brazil, who became the first person to win the World Cup as a player and coach, had died at the age of 92.