Beckenbauer takes moment for secret wedding

Add as a preferred source on Google

MUNICH, June 24: Franz Beckenbauer took time out from his busy schedule running the World Cup to get married in a clandestine ceremony in the Austrian Alps.

The head of Germany's organising committee, who has been in perpetual motion on a helicopter to attend up to three matches a day, exchanged vows in a private ceremony in a small Austrian village near Kitzbuehel, Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.

''It was supposed to be a day for just us without any stress or troubles,'' Beckenbauer told the best-selling newspaper that published photos of Friday's secret wedding covering its first and back pages.

''We wanted to avoid all the commotion. No one expected us to get married in the middle of the World Cup,'' added Beckenbauer, 60, who has two children with the new Mrs. Beckenbauer -- formerly known as Heidi Burmester, 39.

Since the World Cup started on June 9, Beckenbauer has been dashing across the country with the same elegance and stamina he had while roaming the pitch as captain of West Germany's 1974 World Cup winners.

He has stamped his signature on the tournament that he brought to his home country with the same style and homespun words of wisdom he used to coach West Germany to the 1990 World Cup championship.

Beckenbauer is quoted telling Bild's long-time sports editor Alfred Draxler in Saturday's newspaper that there was another reason he picked June 23 to get married.

''The 23rd of June is my mother's birthday,'' he said. Antonie Beckenbauer died aged 92 in January.

Burmester was a secretary at Bayern Munich and their relationship began at a Christmas party. She fell pregnant, he later left his wife and Beckenbauer disarmed criticism about his infidelity by telling Bild: ''The good Lord is happy about every newborn child.'' In his hectic schedule at the World Cup, Beckenbauer has attended 32 of the 48 group matches the last two weeks and aims to see 48 of the 64 played by the final on July 9.

He was seen in the stands in Hamburg recently for the afternoon match at 3 p.m., then in Nuremberg in time for the evening kickoff at 6 p.m. and still made it to Berlin for the day's third match at 9 p.m.

Beckenbauer has also kept up a regular column in Bild, Germany's most influential daily with 12 million readers, worked as a commentator after some matches for ZDF television, and appears in a wide variety of advertisements.

REUTERS