“I arrived in the middle of a swamp”: when Beckenbauer landed on the OM bench in 1990

Having just won a world title with the Mannschaft, the Kaiser signed with Marseille. SVEN SIMON – SVEN SIMON

A big blow from Bernard Tapie: just crowned world champion on the German bench, Franz Beckenbauer joined OM in September 1990, but the "Kaiser" only lasted one season in Marseille, in what he described 20 years later as a 'swamp'.

When he arrived at OM, the prestige of Beckenbauer, world champion as a player and as a coach, was immense. Traumatized by the elimination against Benfica and by the "hand of Vata" the previous season in the European Cup, OM president Bernard Tapie, who has just bought the German group Adidas, is counting on the aura of his new recruit to bring his club into the fold in the circle of the greatest.

Technical Director then…

Beckenbauer arrives as technical director but quickly settles on the bench in place of Gérard Gili, who sees clearly that the shadow of the Kaiser is a little too immense for him to be able to keep your place.

But while OM Gili remained on a Cup-Championship double and an almost perfect start to the season — seven wins and two draws –, Beckenbauer's debut on the bench was missed with a 1-0 defeat against Cannes and the very young Zinedine Zidane. The German technician also discovered Tapie's extreme interventionism and working conditions very far from those he experienced at Bayern Munich.

😥 Le vibrant hommage d'Eric Di Meco pour Franz Beckenbauer :

🙏 "C'est le personnage avec la plus grande classe que j'ai rencontré dans le football." #RMClive pic.twitter.com/5Gq5TSMPVC

— Super Moscato Show (@Moscato_Show) January 8, 2024

At the time, OM did not have a training center and the sessions were organized on the grounds of the Luminy university campus or at the small Stade Delort, which adjoins the Vélodrome.

In November, Beckenbauer also found himself deprived in the middle of a training session of Bernard Pardo, Pascal Olmeta and Bernard Casoni, taken by the police and placed in police custody in a case of financial embezzlement at Toulon, their former club.

"He interfered too much in my daily work, especially on tactical issues"

Finally, the former great defender only remained on the OM bench for 15 matches, for a very average record of eight wins, two draws and five defeats. In December he gave way to Raymond Goethals, less careful than him about the place taken by Tapie in the life of the group and who would lead OM to the European title in 1993.

"He interfered too much in my daily work, particularly on tactical issues", said the "Kaiser" in a 2011 interview with France Football. "I arrived in the middle of a swamp", he also declared the same year to L'Equipe.

Beckenbauer still finished the 1990-91 season in Marseille, as technical director. He left in June, just after the defeat against Red Star Belgrade in the final of the European Champion Clubs' Cup in Bari.