Bayern to honour Beckenbauer with statue outside stadium

Bayern Munich are to honour the late German football legend Franz Beckenbauer with a statue outside their Allianz Arena home ground, a club supporters foundation announced on Sunday.

Beckenbauer, widely considered one of the best players of all time, died in January at the age of 78.

'Der Kaiser's' statue will sit alongside that of former teammate and Bayern striker Gerd Mueller, which was unveiled in September.

Mueller, who still holds the Bundesliga goalscoring record, died in August 2021 at the age of 75.

The Kurt Landauer Foundation, named for the former club president, said the statue would be cast in bronze and would be 1.5 times the size of the German football legend -- around 2.7 metres tall.

Beckenbauer's statue "will be cast in bronze in his incomparably elegant pose as a conductor of the game" the foundation said in a statement.

Born in Munich, Beckenbauer played for Bayern for 13 years, winning the Champions League, Bundesliga and German Cup multiple times, later managing the club to success.

At international level, Beckenbauer won the World Cup with Germany as a player and a coach and is the only defender to have won the Ballon d'Or twice.

Beckenbauer played a key role in the building of the Allianz Arena, which was opened in time for the 2006 World Cup, hosted in Germany.

The project is expected to take 18 months to complete and has the support of Beckenbauer's family and Bayern Munich, with fans encouraged to donate.