Franz Beckenbauer in the context of "Pelé"

The 1974 FIFA World Cup final was the final match of the 1974 FIFA World Cup held in Munich, Germany (formerly West Germany) on 7 July. It was the 10th FIFA World Cup competition, held to determine the world champion among national men's football sides. The match was contested by the Netherlands and West Germany, with West Germany winning 2–1. The Netherlands opened the scoring via a Johan Neeskens penalty in the second minute, only for Paul Breitner to equalise with another penalty in the 25th minute before Gerd Müller scored the winning goal in the 43rd minute, claiming West Germany's second FIFA World Cup.

Five German players (Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer, Wolfgang Overath, Jürgen Grabowski and Horst-Dieter Höttges) became the first in history to have won gold, silver and bronze medals at the FIFA World Cup.

Fußball-Club Bayern München e. V. (FCB, German pronunciation: [ˈfuːsbalˌklʊp ˈbaɪɐn ˈmʏnçn̩]), commonly known as Bayern Munich (German: Bayern München), FC Bayern (pronounced [ˌɛft͡seː ˈbaɪɐn] ) or simply Bayern, is a German professional sports club based in Munich, Bavaria. They are most known for their men's professional football team, who play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Bayern are the most successful club in German football and are among the world's most decorated, having won a record 34 national titles, including eleven consecutive titles from 2013 to 2023 and a record 20 national cups, alongside numerous European titles.

Bayern Munich was founded in 1900 by eleven players, led by Franz John. Although Bayern won its first national championship in 1932, the club was not selected for the Bundesliga during its inception in 1963. The club found success in the mid/late-1960s, but the pinnacle came in the 1970s under the captaincy of Franz Beckenbauer, as they won the European Cup three consecutive times (1974–1976). Overall, Bayern have won six European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles (a German record), winning their sixth title in the 2020 final as part of the Treble, and it became the second European club to achieve this feat twice. Furthermore, the club is one of five teams that have earned the right to keep the trophy and to wear a multiple-winner badge. The club has reached the final of the European Cup/UEFA Champions League eleven times, a joint second-most of any club in the history of the competition and is also second placed in numbers of semi-final appearances. Bayern has also won one UEFA Cup, one European Cup Winners' Cup, two UEFA Super Cups, two FIFA Club World Cups and two Intercontinental Cups, making it one of the most successful European clubs internationally, and the only German club to have won both international titles. Bayern players have accumulated five Ballon d'Or awards with multiple players coming in the second position in the award, two The Best FIFA Men's Player awards, five European Golden Shoe and three UEFA Men's Player of the Year awards, including UEFA Club Footballer of the Year.

Mário Jorge Lobo Zagallo (Portuguese pronunciation: [ˈmaɾju zaˈɡalu]; 9 August 1931 – 5 January 2024) was a Brazilian professional football player, coordinator and manager, who played as a forward.

Zagallo holds the record for FIFA World Cup titles in general with four titles in total. He also holds the record for World Cup finals with six participations. He was the first person to win the World Cup as both a manager and as a player, winning the competition in 1958 and 1962 as a player and in 1970 as manager. In addition, he won the 1994 FIFA World Cup as assistant manager. Zagallo also coached Brazil in 1974 (finishing fourth) and in 1998 (finishing as runners-up) and was a technical assistant in 2006. He was the first of three men, along with Germany's Franz Beckenbauer (who coincidentally died two days after Zagallo) and France's Didier Deschamps to have won the World Cup as a player and as a manager, and the only one who had done each more than once.

Didier Claude Deschamps (French: [didje klod deʃɑ̃]; born 15 October 1968), popularly known as Dédé ([dede]), is a French professional football manager and former player who has been managing the France national team since 2012. He played as a defensive midfielder for several clubs, in France, Italy, England and Spain, namely Marseille, Juventus, Chelsea and Valencia, as well as Nantes and Bordeaux. Nicknamed "the water-carrier" (French: le porteur d'eau), Deschamps was an intelligent and hard-working defensive midfielder who excelled at winning back possession and subsequently starting attacking plays, and also stood out for his leadership throughout his career. As a French international, he was capped on 103 occasions and took part at three UEFA European Championships and one FIFA World Cup, captaining his nation to victories in the 1998 World Cup and Euro 2000.

In addition to winning two Division 1 titles in 1990 and 1992, Deschamps was part of the Marseille squad that became the first French club to win the UEFA Champions League, a feat which the team achieved in 1993; with the Champions League victory, Deschamps became the youngest captain ever to lead his team to win the title. With Juventus he played three Champions League finals in a row from 1996 to 1998, winning the title in 1996. With the Turin side, he also won the UEFA Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup, as well as three Serie A titles, among other trophies. With Chelsea, he won the 1999–2000 FA Cup, and also reached another Champions League final with Valencia in 2001, before retiring later that season. After Franz Beckenbauer and followed by Iker Casillas, he was only the second captain in the history of football to have lifted the Champions League trophy, the World Cup trophy, and the European Championship trophy.