Franz Beckenbauer Has Experienced A Lack Of Indonesian Football

German world football legend Franz Beckenbauer (center). (Wikimedia Commons)

JAKARTA - Franz Beckenbauer was once a German football magnet. His action playing the round skin really wowed the whole world. He is like the conquest of the world of football. The purchase of the trophy and the personal award he got was piled up. The world was just shocked by Beckenbauer's departure on January 7, 2024. He died at the age of 78 in Salzburg, Austria due to illness.

Beckenbauer not only succeeded as a player, but also as a coach. The Indonesian Football Association (PSSI) was attracted. PSSI invited him in the 1990s. The organization asked him to'resistant' the lack of Indonesian football which was considered not to progress.

Football as a way of life is not just the monopoly of the Brazilian people. The narrative was also agreed by the German people, especially West Germany. Franz Beckenbauer, especially. The man who was born in Munich on September 11, 1945, dared to scratch his dream of becoming a world famous footballer.

Semesta supports. His way in the world of football is wide open. He started his football career by joining SC Munich '06 junior team. At first he chose a position as the center forward.

Every day he continued to practice and score goals. Even though he later chose to be a libero, a defender who had the freedom to defend and attack. This position made Beckenbauer able to hone his talent in reading the game.

The result was brilliant. He was able to quickly respond in carrying out a counter-attack scheme and scoring goals. This ability made Bayer Munich interested. Beckenbauer was recruited by a team nicknamed Fc Hollywood in 1959.

He started his career from the junior team, then was included in the senior team in 1964. Since then his achievements with Munich have skyrocketed. His togetherness with Munich was able to make him known all over the world.

He was able to bring Munich to many titles. These include four Bundesliga titles, four German Cup trophies (DFB Pokal), three European Cup titles (now: Champions League), one Winners' Cup, and the winner of the Intercontinental Cup (now: Club Inter World Cup).

In the world, he also called him Der jurisprudence (The Emperor). Instead of just being brilliant at the club level, his greatness in playing for the West German national team was no less stunning. He was able to bring the country to win the 1974 World Cup trophy as the host.

Beckenbauer then looked for a new challenge. He chose to move to the United States to join New York Cosmos in 1977. He played only three seasons with New York Cosmos. In fact, with New York Cosmos, Beckenbauer had a friendly match against the Indonesian national team on October 3, 1979. New York Cosmos beat Indonesia 4-1 at the Gelora Bung Karno Main Stadium.

A brilliant career as a player made Beckenbauer challenge to play the West German coach. He considered the decision a voice of conscience. In fact, Beckenbauer's figure as a player or coach was both frightening to opponents. The proof is Beckenbauer was able to bring his country to the 1990 World Cup in Italy.

''I took the job because the national league was slumping. Football across Germany has been declining since 1974, when we were still champions. Someone had to do something to stop it, and people kept saying I was the only one who could do it.'

''We have managed all of this without any young players developing. We have to rely on veterans, like last World Cup. Of course, we also reached the final four years ago, but the second position was not enough for me.'' Beckenbauer explained as quoted by Alex Yannis in his paper The New York Times entitled Beckenbauer: Reticent Coach (1986).

The world admires Beckenbauer's brilliant career, as a player and coach. Indonesia, especially. PSSI was attracted by the golden talent possessed by the Emperor. PSSI General Chairperson for the 1991'1998 period, Azwar Anas to invite Beckenbauer specifically to Indonesia in the 1990s.

Beckenbauer at that time was deliberately brought in to explore the reasons why Indonesian football did not advance. Moreover, Indonesia often finds it very difficult to find the 11 best sons plus the reserves of a total of 200 million Indonesians.

Ulam's beloved pinnacle arrives. Beckenbauer was quite enthusiastic. He also took a lot of time to come and help PSSI dig into trouble. He started his journey in Indonesia by looking at the training of junior players.

He was also invited by PSSI to travel to remote areas of the country. Beckenbauer seriously researched the development of Indonesian football in the regions. The trip brought results. The German living legend was able to provide a lot of input to PSSI.

The input was given directly to PSSI. Some of them were implemented by PSSI. Andil Beckenbauer helped the development of Indonesian football to be greeted with great fanfare. Contribution is proof that Beckenbauer has great dedication to advancing world football.

In the end, he gave several conclusions about the condition of Indonesian football. First, he assumed that only 10-15 percent of Indonesian children knew the technique of processing the ball, while 85 percent only played naturally.

Second, it turns out that the enthusiasm of players and audiences towards football in Indonesia is very large. According to Beckenbauer, the cause of the inclusion of Indonesian football is the mismatched quality of coaches, referees need to be improved in quality, age group training systems are not continuously graded, and the competition system is problematic," explained Azwar Anas as written by Abrar Yusra in the book Azwar Anas: Exemplary of Ranah Minang (2011).