DER KAISER RULED IT ALL

Majestic Beckenbauer stands -alone as Germany's greatest

- Mike Walters

UNTIL Franz Beckenbauer invented the libero's beat on a football pitch, the only sweepers in town cleaned the streets or chimneys with a brush.

But the finest German footballer of them all did not just conceive a new position which tacticians have adopted for nearly 60 years without matching its innovator's command of his orbit.

ever When 'Der Kaiser' tidied up at the back, his supreme elegance and majestic calm set him apart from every other player of his craft.

Beckenbauer, one of only three men to win the World Cup as a player and a manager, has died aged 78 after a dignified descent towards the sunset fighting the twin ravages of Parkinson's disease and dementia.