Fiasco, class, good memories… Beckenbauer at OM, the transplant did not take

Franz Beckenbauer at OM? A huge blow from Bernard Tapie. Not the only one of course. Not the most glorious... Died on Sunday at the age of 78, the Kaiser however left only good memories in the Marseille ranks... but the experience only lasted a handful of months, from September to December 1990. 17 matches, 10 wins, two draws and five defeats. Recall of facts.

Tapie, who had just acquired Adidas, had met Beckenbauer just before the 1990 World Cup final won by Germany… with Beckenbauer. At the time, however, OM remained on two French championship titles - including a double in 89 - and a semi-final in the European Champion Clubs' Cup under the orders of Gérard Gili. Moreover, the Marseillais started the 1990-91 campaign strong, with seven victories and a draw. Officially, the German star arrived to take up a position as technical director. Gili, however, quickly understood that the double Golden Ball, who arrived at the club with a Francophile assistant in the person of Holger Osieck, was coming to take his place. He therefore left and took over from Raymond Goethals on the bench of the Bordeaux rival.

Why Beckenbauer? After the elimination against Benfica in C1, the famous hand of Vata which still torments the nights of Marseille, Tapie released this sentence which remained famous: "I understood how to win a European Cup". In his mind, the aura of the German legend should enable OM to take a step forward. More than Gérard Gili in any case…

After his adventure at the head of the German selection, Franz Beckenbauer ended up being seduced by Bernard Tapie, who had “impressed him with his strong personality. He constantly believed in everything he did. Concerning me, when it came time to convince me to become the new coach of OM, he was able to be perseverant until I broke down, because I was not very motivated at the start. But in the end, I could not resist his charismatic side,” he said in comments collected by L’Equipe, in October 2021, at the time of the death of the former Minister of the City. He added: “It was frankly impossible. In the end, with his character and his strength of persuasion, he made eyes at me by succeeding in seducing me.

Also read: Franz Beckenbauer, German football legend, has died

The former boss of Olympique de Marseille, however, did not show more deference towards a big name like Beckenbauer than any other technician on the Marseille bench. In addition, the former Bayern and Hamburg star struggled to find the right formula on the field, making contested choices tactically or in his compositions. At least, when it wasn't Tapie himself who was in charge... “He always wanted to have the last word. Just before the matches kicked off, he would suddenly change tactics without giving me a choice,” recalled Franz Beckenbauer, referring to such a “fascinating and confusing character”.

Between checkered results, the interventionism of the president and his scandals with several scandals which began to flood the French media, Franz Beckenbauer presented his resignation in December 1990. Bernard Tapie accepted it... while managing to convince the man with 108 caps to continue as technical director until the end of the season. It was not uncommon to see him on the bench for European matches.

On December 23, 1990, Belgian technician Raymond Goethals took over, guiding OM to a new French champion title and the C1 final, and this cruel penalty shootout against Red Star of Belgrade. The Phocaeans had eliminated the great Milan in the quarter-finals in passing. We know the rest: two years later, Goethals' Marseille lifted the Big Ears Cup after a 1-0 success against AC Milan, in Munich, where Franz Beckenbauer had his finest hours as a as a player in the 60s and 70s. Like a symbol...

Also read “Class”, “talent”, “historical personality”… The world of football mourns the death of Beckenbauer

Among those who had the opportunity to work under his orders in Marseille, criticism is rare. “It's the greatest class I've ever encountered in football, and one of the three or five monsters I've ever encountered, who has remained engraved in my memory for life. It's the class, the talent... Every morning that God does, arriving at the stadium, he greets the laundress, the shopkeeper, the physiotherapists, all the players... It shows the class of the character. He only left good memories,” says Éric Di Meco on RMC, adding that physical trainer Adi Pinter was much tougher than him. And continues: “In your life, you don’t come across many great men. And he was a great player, a great coach, a great man and incredible class.

Subsequently, Franz Beckenbauer had only two short stints as Bayern coach (1993-94 and 1996), he who occupied several roles within the organizational chart of the Munich club, including that of president. “Laborious results and advice from Bernard Tapie, considered inappropriate on his choices, pushed the Kaiser to bow out at the end of the year truce (1990). A departure, like the character, all in elegance, with the aim of succeeding in the divorce, failing to have succeeded in the marriage”, we summarize at OM.