This year's Bavarian Sports Awards were dominated by FC Bayern. At the 17th awards ceremony on Saturday evening in Munich, the German record champions were named "Team of the Century" by minister president Dr. Markus Söder and sports minister Joachim Herrmann. FCB honorary president Franz Beckenbauer was also honoured as a "sportsman of the century".
Executive board chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge and club president Uli Hoeness accepted the award. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the Free State and 200 years of the Constitutional State of Bavaria, so the Bavarian Sports Awards were presented under the motto "WE CELEBRATE BAVARIA". The Bavarian Sports Awards are presented for outstanding achievements and exemplary initiatives in sport.
The witty laudatory speech for Beckenbauer was delivered by his long-standing friend Günter Netzer. The pair have known each other for more than 50 years. Netzer, who once recruited Beckenbauer as manager at Hamburger SV in the early 1980s, said about the Kaiser: "He was the best before his time, the best during his time, and nothing better came after him either. With his elegance and lightness, Franz's interpretation of football was very close to art."
Beckenbauer had already received the "Personal Award of the Bavarian Minister President" from Dr Edmund Stoiber in 2005.
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