Franz Beckenbauer gave me starry eyes as Rangers teenager and I thought epic Bayern victory at rocking Ibrox was a dream
It's a night the former Rangers man would never forget and to this day still names it as his No1 career highlight.
Derek Parlane could rhyme them off one by one.
The Bayern Munich side that stood in the way of Rangers and their path to the 1972 Cup Winners’ Cup final were household names to the then 18-year-old. The nervous Ibrox kid found himself standing in the tunnel ahead of his first-ever game in Euro competition staring at a line of faces he found more recognisable than even his own. But for all the star power, the strutting confidence and ego of Sepp Maier, Gerd Muller and Paul Breitner, none could match the aura of Franz Beckenbauer.
Germany’s iconic World Cup-winning skipper and boss passed away on Sunday with his status as a global legend long secured. He needed no introduction to the Ibrox faithful when his team rolled up for that famous semi-final – five years earlier he had guided the Bavarian big guns to Cup Winners’ Cup success over Scott Symon’s Gers in Nuremberg. With Celtic lifting the European Cup in Lisbon just six days earlier, that night in the Municipal Stadium was a chance to see Glasgow crowned as the continent’s undisputed footballing capital. But it wasn’t to be as both Beckenbauer and his team edged it 1-0 after extra time, Der Kaiser lifting the first of four European titles.
Fast forward to April 19, 1972 and Beckenbauer was looking to land another killer blow against the Light Blues. But this time Parlane emerged as the unlikely Rangers hero with a goal that sealed victory and a place in the Nou Camp final. For one rare moment, the great Beckenbauer found himself overshadowed.
“I remember standing in the tunnel as an 18-year-old, ready to make my European debut,” Gers legend Parlane told Record Sport. “I turned round to see the away dressing room open and out walked the Bayern Munich team. It was star after star. They were led out by Beckenbauer. Then came Maier. Then it was Muller and Breitner. I was the only player in the tunnel I didn’t recognise that night! But for all the big names on show, Beckenbauer was the biggest of the lot.
“As a player, he was different class. He was a real leader. They called him the Kaiser and you could see why by the way he carried himself. He was just so confident, almost to the point of being cocky, but he had the talent to back it up. Thankfully, Bayern didn’t have their best night, which I’m sure Franz admitted, but as a footballer he was just fabulous.
"At the time, I couldn’t believe I was actually getting the chance to play against someone like him. I was football daft as a kid and I had pictures of half of that Bayern team up on my bedroom wall. Now here I was playing against them in my first European game.
“The gauge of how good that squad came a couple of years later when half of the German’s winning World Cup side came from Bayern. These are great memories. It was an absolute pleasure to have been on the same pitch as Franz.”
Goals from Sandy Jardine and Parlane sent Willie Waddell’s Ibrox side through to their triumphant date with Moscow Dynamo in Barcelona, but Parlane’s most vivid recollection is of the Bayern legend turning the air blue. He said: “My memories of Beckenbauer from that night are him losing the plot a little. We scored really early, inside the first couple of minutes through Sandy, before I got my goal midway through the first half.
“Ibrox was rocking and the Bayern players must have thought, ‘Jesus, we’re up against it here.’ We were so motivated that night and Bayern found it hard to cope. It was my first encounter with Beckenbauer in person but I’d seen him play plenty for Germany on TV and knew just how good a player he was.
“We all remember him as being this suave, sophisticated footballer but he did lose the plot that night, which surprised us. He was swearing and arguing with his team-mates. That’s when we knew we had them beaten. The whole night flew by in a blur really as we held on for a famous win that took us to Barcelona. I woke up the next morning thinking, ‘Wow, did that really happen?’ If I had to pick one highlight from my career, that night would be No.1. A night and a goal that changed my life. I’m just very saddened to hear of Franz’s passing. It’s a huge loss to world football. He was somebody we looked up to, not just as a player but as a manager and administrator in later life.”