Franz Beckenbauer took time out from running the World Cup to get married in a clandestine ceremony in the Austrian Alps.
MUNICH: Franz Beckenbauer took time out from running the World Cup to get married in a clandestine ceremony in the Austrian Alps.
The head of Germany's organising committee, who has used a helicopter to attend up to three matches a day, exchanged vows in a private ceremony in a small Austrian village near Kitzbuehel, the Bild newspaper reported on Saturday.
“It was supposed to be a day for just us without any stress or troubles,” Beckenbauer told the 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.
Jens Grittner, a senior spokesman for the German organising committee, said he was as surprised as anyone when he saw the reports.
“We want to congratulate him on his wedding which he did his way. Not even his closest colleagues in the organising committee knew anything about it at all -- and that's the way he wanted it.
“Today is a normal day for him. He's off to the match in Leipzig,” he told reporters.
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.”
Beckenbauer, who won the World Cup as a player in 1974 and coach in 1990, 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 pm, then in Nuremberg in time for the evening kickoff at 6 pm and still made it to Berlin for the day's third match at 9 pm.
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