By Raphael Honigstein

Ed. note: This piece appeared in a commemorative magazine released immediately prior to the Cosmos' reboot match in fall 2013. We're placing it here in honor of Franz Beckenbauer's upcoming appearance at our 2015 Spring Season home opener - Saturday, April 18 at 7 p.m. ET.

In his former roles as FIFA executive committee member and chairman of Germany’s successful 2006 World Cup bid, Franz Beckenbauer traveled the world many times over. He won every conceivable title as a player with Bayern Munich, later winning more titles as coach and, most recently, as club president. He has been captain and manager of World Cup championship teams for West Germany. For a brief period, he was sporting director at Olympique Marseille in France. But “Der Kasier” (The Emperor) has never been happier than when playing for the New York Cosmos, 1977-80. “It was the most beautiful time of my life,” he says.

Beckenbauer admits that swapping Bavaria for Central Park South was not an easy decision at first. At that time, foreign-based players were not picked for the West German national team, so Beckenbauer knew that moving to the Cosmos would deprive him of the chance to defend the 1974 World Cup title. West German FA (DFB) President Hermann Neuberger arrogantly dismissed the North American Soccer League as an “Operettenliga” (opera league). Following Beckenbauer’s transfer for $2.5 million, the DFB informally banned all transfers aboard before the 1978 World Cup.

“I really was not sure," Beckenbauer recalls. “I said yes, then no, then changed my mind again.” A helicopter flight that took off from the old Pan Am building in midtown Manhattan clinched the deal: “We flew over the Hudson, toward New Jersey, to Giants Stadium, the most modern in the world at the time, with VIP boxes. Europe did not have any of these things. While we were flying over the stadium, I shouted: ‘Ok, enough! I’m coming!’’’

Beckenbauer won three championships with the Cosmos, alongside fellow greats Pelé and Carlos Alberto. But perhaps more importantly, his stay in New York turned Beckenbauer from a somewhat shy son of a Munich postal worker into a sure-footed individual who could operate on a global stage. The genesis of what Germans call the “Lichtgestalt,” the phenomenon of Beckenbauer, was laid there.

From his 21st-floor apartment, Beckenbauer enjoyed a 360-degree view of Manhattan. Showbiz stars such as Liza Minneli, Plácido Domingo, Luciana Pavarotti and Rudolf Nureyev were his neighbors. The latter became a friend when Beckenbauer sent him to have his injured feet treated by the Cosmos team doctor. Beckenbauer became a regular visitor to the Metropolitan Opera. “A soccer player at the opera, it might sound stranger today,” he says, “but at the time, it was nothing unusual.”

In his native Germany, envy about his big-money move turned into adulation and pride. Beckenbauer was signed up as columnist by a political magazine and feted as West Germany’s most glamorous export.

After one final season wearing the green shirt in 1983, Beckenbauer retired from active duty, but made a point of visiting New York every year. He only broke with that tradition briefly in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks.

“The 11^th of September happens to be my birthday”, he told Germany’s Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin in 2010. “I couldn’t bear going to New York again for six years after the attack happened. Because I used to go to the restaurant on level 107 almost daily, at least once a week. It had a German CEO. I went there with everyone who came to visit. I had a regular table. The shock was so great. It was unimaginable for me to [go] to New York without the Twin Towers. I didn’t want to see that”.

These days, Beckenbauer once again pays regular visits to the Big Apple, where the happy memories are always guaranteed to put a smile on his face. “I’ve led the perfect life," he once said. And nowhere was it as perfect as in New York.