Germany‘s late World Cup-winning captain and coach Franz Beckenbauer will be honoured by UEFA at the Euro 2024 opening ceremony in the Munich Football Arena on Friday, European football’s governing body said.
Beckenbauer, one of his country’s greatest players, captained West Germany to a European Championship triumph in 1972 and a World Cup success in 1974 before winning the World Cup again as manager in 1990. He died in January, aged 78.
The opening ceremony will see Beckenbauer’s wife Heidi carry the Henri Delaunay Cup — the tournament’s championship trophy — along with Germany’s two Euro-winning captains Bernard Dietz and Jürgen Klinsmann.
This will ensure “all three of Germany’s UEFA Euro triumphs are reflected,” UEFA said in a statement on Tuesday.
The venue of the ceremony is also home to Bayern Munich, the club where Beckenbauer played for over a decade, winning three successive European Cups from 1974 to 1976.
The opening ceremony will precede Germany’s opening match in the tournament against Scotland in Group A.