Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp has paid tribute to a legend of the German game.
With former Germany defender Franz Beckenbauer passing away on January 7th, Klopp chose to honour the ex-Bayern Munich star.
Beckenbauer, who lived to 78, was a Ballon d'Or winner and a World Cup winner as both a player and manager.
The Reds boss said, "Yeah, yesterday was a very sad day when I got the news and I should probably start with the most important thing: my condolences to the family of Franz Beckenbauer, and my heartfelt condolences.
"The German media asked me yesterday pretty quickly after the news broke to have a few words but I couldn't, I had to process it because Franz was a really big part of my life. I told him once, 'I know you much better than you will ever know me because I've known you since I can think,' and I loved him from the first day when I saw him playing because it was just so different, so special.
"Then I got the privilege to get to know him a little bit better around the World Cup 2006 and already in 2005 [with] the Confederations Cup, and realized a few things: first and foremost that he is the best person to meet ever, he was really good company, he was funny, he was intelligent – he was everything you want to be yourself, pretty much.
"And he taught me something that I didn't know at that time that I will need in my life: that you can be famous, you can be a lot in the media, everybody is talking about you and you still can be absolutely yourself – and it was Franz Beckenbauer.
"He was a fantastic person; Germany's best footballer ever, but he was an even better person and that's really difficult to reach but he did that. We had contact from time to time and it was always great to talk to him, it was always great to meet him and yeah, the world will be a completely different place without him and that was the thing I really had to process because I don't know a world without him.
"That is the first day pretty much and it is a different place, let me say it like that. We will miss him, and I will miss him a lot."
