Helmut Markwort, former Bayern Munich board member and friend of the late Franz Beckenbauer, has revealed details about the agony and death of the great German football legend.
According to Markwort, the death of Beckenbauer, who passed away at the age of 78, was not only due to the illness that kept him out of public life.
Mental struggles
The 87-year-old politician and journalist claims that it was “mental suffering” that was responsible for the death of the “Kaiser”.
“The death of his son was fatal,” Markwort told Focus.
“And the newspapers, which first promoted him, then sank him. The media betrayed him. In the end he felt alone and no longer wanted anything to do with anyone.”
Markwort pointed out that Beckenbauer “went into hiding for the last year; he was devastated” and that he “was deeply hurt when he was accused of bribery, infidelity and dirty tricks”.
“If one believes in psychosomatics, in the connection between physical suffering and mental pain, one can assume that his son and the persecution in public made him sick,” Markwort added.
“In the end he was really sick and that was terrible for him. He also no longer wanted to show his worn-out appearance in public.”
Markwort claimed that in his later years Beckenbauer, who was a World Cup winner with Germany and won three consecutive European Cups with Bayern, suffered great loneliness and profound physical deterioration.
“He had trouble speaking, he had trouble seeing and he couldn’t and didn’t want to see his friends anymore. He ended up as a lonely old man,” Markwort noted.
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