BECKENBAUER REVEALS STRONG MILAN INTEREST
Franz Beckenbauer, popularly known as Der Kaiser, has revealed that he almost joined the Milan duo of Inter Milan and AC Milan at various times in his career. Franz Beckenbauer revealed the strong interest from both Inter and Milan during his playing career during an exclusive interview with German newspaper Bild.
German football icon Beckenbauer stated that he almost joined Inter Milan in 1966 before adding that he came close to join Milan much later.
Franz Beckenbauer had an outstanding playing career for both club and country. The better part of his club career was spent with German Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich. Also, Beckenbauer won the FIFA World Cup tournament with West Germany on home soil during the 1974 edition.
Alongside Brazilian football icon Mario Zagallo, Franz Beckenbauer has won the World Cup tournament as a player and as a manager. He added the World Cup title from the dugout as he led West Germany to a third title at the 1990 edition.
Beckenbauer was the manager as Andreas Brehme scored from the penalty spot for the only goal of the game to help West Germany beat defending champions Argentina 1-0 in the final.
Der Kaiser told the abovementioned German newspaper that he has always has soft spot for Italy and that Inter Milan wanted to sign him in 1096. He went on to say Milan also wanted to secure his signature one year later. Beckenbauer stated that he was unable to sign for either Inter Milan or AC Milan due to theban on foreign players and that he opted to stay at Bayern Munich. He spent almost all his playing career at Bayern, netting 60 times in 425 appearances for the German team. Der Kaiser also found the back of the net 14 times in over a century of caps for West Germany.