Building an all-time male football XI can be a fun or a tedious affair, depending on whether you decide to share your selections on the internet. Some of the positions are, of course, up for debate but this is too short a tea-timely email to get into that discussion. There are, however, half-a-dozen players who are automatic picks. Lev Yashin, Paolo Maldini, Diego Maradona, Leo Messi, Pelé and Franz Beckenbauer. They are The Untouchables or The Non-Negotiables, to give them their slightly less catchy nickname. No Greatest XI can be built without these six, nor shall it be. Regrettably, Cruyff, CR7, R9, Xavi, Ronaldinho, Zidane, Di Stéfano, Puskas, Charlton and co are all going to have to fit around them. And no, you can’t have Zizou as a holding midfielder.

Beckenbauer is the greatest centre-back of all time. Those in England will shout for Bobby Moore, and in Italy there will be calls for Franco Baresi. But they are just contenders, understudies, sous chefs. Beckenbauer could cook, alright, combining Franco Baresi’s longevity, Moore’s intelligence, Koeman’s goals, Nesta’s bravery (playing the extra time of the 1970 World Cup semi-final against Italy – widely known as the ‘Match of the Century’ – with a dislocated shoulder and an arm in a sling), Ramos’s aggression into one extremely sentient being that elevated both Bayern Munich and West Germany to the top of the sport.

Twice the winner of the Ballon d’Or in 1972 and 1976, he won a European Championship with West Germany and three consecutive Big Cups with Bayern in the 1970s, five German league titles in three different decades and is one of only three players to win the World Cup as a player and manager. When he joined Bayern, they were not even permitted a place in the newly-founded Bundesliga. As a player, manager and later behind the scenes, they grew into a global giant. Can anyone claim to have had a bigger influence on a single club?

Of course, things could have been so different. Beckenbauer was just a slap away from joining Bayern’s rivals, 1860 Munich, as a young lad. In 1958, playing for under-14 local side SC 1906 as a striker against 1860, he had an altercation with opposing centre-half Gerhard König, who aimed a slap at Beckenbauer. The incident convinced Franz to change his plans of joining 1860. Instead, Bayern came calling. “It was just fate that we both came together, and that I became a Red and not a Blue,” Beckenbauer told Bayerischer Rundfunk in a 2010 interview, alongside König. 1860’s loss was Bayern’s gain. The rest is history.

The Emperor is dead at 78. There will not be a successor. Time comes for everyone, even those that seem immortal. In later life, Beckenbauer battled health issues as well as accusations of wrongdoing over suspected corruption linked to the 2006 World Cup. But now the libero is free again.

Join Rob Smyth for minute-by-minute updates from the first leg of Middlesbrough 1-2 Chelsea in the Milk Cup semi-final.

“[I was] crying almost every day for no reason. Tears were coming alone. Why I don’t know, but maybe they were there for a very long time. Technically, it wasn’t me, it was the young me [crying for] everything he didn’t get: approval” – Thierry Henry opens up about his struggles with mental health and depression during his career.

Our top 100 female footballers in the world for 2023 countdown begins with ♫♮♪ cue Pick of the Pops music ♫♮♪ Nos 100-71.

As the great Danny Baker used to say, ‘there’s a reason why the bookmakers have six tills to pay in and one to pay out.’ It’s to pay for this sort of thing” – Noble Francis.

So glad you brought up yesterday that amazing scene from Pulp Fiction when our two ‘heroes’ get major lead shot at them but don’t get hit (yesterday’s Football Daily). I was however shocked to read you referring to the subsequent discussion as a ‘philosophical debate’. In fact, Vincent rightly refers to the discussion as a theological one. As a professor of theology I use this clip to demonstrate to my students the two main conflicting approaches to the nature of miracles. And as a theologian I get upset when my discipline is incorrectly labelled. Rather like José Mourinho yelling at the officials, I have lost control and I am yelling at you. So there” – George Ferzoco.

Send your letters to [email protected]. Today’s winner of our prizeless letter o’ the day is … George Ferzoco.

It’s your man David Squires on … Sir Big Jim Ratcliffe’s review of Manchester United’s slick operation.

The FA is to review the death of the Sheffield United midfielder Maddy Cusack to see if any of its rules were breached.

Grimsby are to honour their 16-year-old youth team player Cameron Walsh and his father, Dave, at Saturday’s League Two match with Notts County. The pair died in a car accident on Saturday and tributes will be paid before the match at the weekend.

The UK sports minister has risen to Joey Barton’s edgelord bait. “These are dangerous comments that open the floodgates for abuse and that’s not acceptable,” warned Stuart Andrew. “But I’m always slightly wary in these situations that these sorts of people want the oxygen and I don’t want to fuel that.”

Trent Alexander-Arnold’s knee-gah is set to keep him out of action ‘for a few weeks’, while West Ham’s injury woes have mounted with the news that Lucas Paquetá faces four weeks out with calf-ouch.

Middlesbrough boss Michael Carrick has been dusting off DVDs of Boudewijn Zenden, Joseph-Désiré Job and the rest of Boro’s 2004 Worthington Cup winners to rouse his side for the visit of Chelsea in the Rumbelows Cup semi-final. “I remember Juninho and Gareth [Southgate] were playing. I’ve seen the pictures up here. That’s the impact football can have, you can create special memories and special days for people,” he trilled. Meanwhile Mauricio Pochettino insists his side are ready for a Boro blizzard.

On the transfer treadmill, Timo Werner is coughing for the doctors at Tottenham, Ian Maatsen’s loan move from Chelsea to Dortmund is set to be finalised and the Rumour Mill has it that Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite is a target for Real Madrid. Yup.

In the FA Cup, Manchester United saw off Plucky Wigan to land a proper fourth-round tie at either Newport or non-league Eastleigh. Elsewhere in the draw, Maidstone were given a trip to Ipswich, either Tottenham or Manchester City will go out after they were drawn together, and Chelsea meet Aston Villa.

And Marco Silva wants his Fulham players to be “clever” and, erm, remember that it’s a two-legged Fizzy Cup tie against Liverpool. “I don’t want the players just thinking about the second game, because if we don’t do our job really well in the first one, probably the chances to be decisive at home are not going to be there,” he blabbed, not sounding particularly bullish.

Tributes to Der Kaiser: Andy Brassell reflects on Franz Beckenbauer’s unprecedented influence on all aspects of German football, Philip Oltermann writes on how Beckenbauer’s journey personified a resurgent nation, Paul Wilson hails a complete footballer and winning coach, and Brian Glanville’s obituary is here.

You can also feast your eyes on this picture gallery charting Der Kaiser’s life, and a video obit while Jonathan Wilson looks at how Beckenbauer invented his own role, and in doing so changed the game.

Jacob Steinberg on the importance of João Palhinha to Fulham in their Coca-Cola Cup semi against Liverpool

And not every Manchester United player is folding under the pressure of playing under them. Kobbie Mainoo for one, writes Will Unwin of the local lad who put in another composed performance in the FA Cup win at Wigan.

Germany’s Franz Beckenbauer beats Johan Cruyff to the ball in the 1974 World Cup final. Cruyff was the only player that Beckenbauer considered his superior, later admitting “Johan was a better player than me, but I won the World Cup”. On Beckenbauer’s 70th birthday in 2015, Cruyff said: “I can’t say exactly when we became friends. But even when we were playing, we instinctively had a great respect for each other and that organically grew into a friendship. We often saw each other, because I always went skiing in Kitzbuhel, where he was living. We did sport together and, in the evenings, sat together. Over the years, the connection became stronger and stronger. We both know that life at the top is lonely.”