Beckenbauer from the midfielder to sweeper

Please also see my All-Time World Cup Team Index.

Bayern Munich
Bayern Munich All-time Greatest Team for German players
Bayern Munich Foreign Players All-time Greatest Team
Germany
Germany World Cup 2002
German Turks 
German Americans/American Germans
German-born Players Capped by Other National Teams
Germany All-Time Team After Beckenbauer
Germany All-Time Team before 1972

Franz Beckenbauer is forever known as the player who personified the sweeper position.  In reality, he played as a box-to-box midfielder for most of his career.  In 1966, he dominated the midfield at the World Cup Finals at the age of 20.  He ran and down the field.  He demonstrated his power and skills by scoring 4 brilliant goals.   By 1970, he was playing a more withdrew position, but not yet the sweeper position where he would became  known for.  Finally, he played his first WC as a sweeper in 1974, where he was credited for revolutionising the position.

Backenbauer the midfielder in 1966

Throughout the 1960's, Helmut Schön, the German manager at the time,  did not want Beckenbauer to play the sweeper role.   He believed that Beckenbauer should be playing as the link between midfield and attack.  His talents would be waste at the back.   Beckenbauer spent most of his playing time in the midfield while Germany used mainly Willi Schulz or Karl-Heinz Schnellinger as their sweeper. Many people in Germany shared the same view.  However, Beckenbauer viewed the sweeper position differently.  By playing behind the 9 other outfielders on his team,  he could see the entire field in front of him, not only a third.  The sweeper could control the attacks more thoroughly from behind.  

While Beckenbauer could not play the sweeper role with the national team, he got his opportunity to play there for his club team, Bayern Munich.  Tschik Cajkovski, the Bayern manager at that time, received a lot criticism for "wasting" Beckenbauer's talent at the back.  Soon, Bayern Munich found successes with Beckenbauer playing at the back.  Suddenly, Beckenbauer playing as an offensive-minded sweeper, it seemed, was visionary.   By 1971, public opinion switched.  Beckenbauer had physical prowess to tackle and play central defence.  He also had the intelligence to organise a defence and his ability as a playmaker allowed him to move the ball quickly up the field. The rest is well-known history in soccer.  Beckenbauer became known as the father of the offensive-minded sweeper as West Germany won the WC in 1974.

Some of the unpublished posts from this blog have been turned into a two-volume book: The Multiverse of the Beautiful Game: National Teams of Pure Fantasy.

Volume 1 takes you back in time and asks the questions every football fan has dreamed about. What if Brazil had a more beautiful team in 1982 — would they have cruised to the title? What if the United Kingdom could send its team to the 1970 World Cup? I believe they would have been the strongest side on earth. What if Argentina had fielded both Omar Sivori and Alfredo Di Stéfano together in 1958? What if Johan Cruyff had lined up alongside Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard? What if Eusébio had played for Brazil? And that's only scratching the surface — Volume 1 is packed with legendary "what ifs" that will keep you turning pages.

Volume 2 brings the fantasy closer to home. What if England had Michael Olise, Erling Haaland and others in 2026 — could they go all the way? What if Yugoslavia had gone to the World Cup in 2018? What if the United States could select more players in 2010? It would be the greatest American side ever. And what if Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi had actually played for the same national team in 2006? It could have happened — if the soccer gods had smiled on us.

*** Both Volume One and Volume Two are available now on Amazon. ***

The Sweeper winning the World Cup in 1974