Beckenbauer gives his wife the red card

GERMANY’S football legend Franz Beckenbauer let his wife find out he planned to divorce her by letting her read about it in the local media.

The ‘Kaiser’ left his wife Sybille Weimer in July 2002 and now lives with girlfriend Heidi Burmester, 38, and their two children. But he told German media about the divorce before he told his wife.

Beckenbauer said: “I can’t live with a woman and still be married to another woman. That’s not right. And so I’ll have to change things,” reported magazine Bunte.

He admitted, however, that he had not yet spoken to his wife about a divorce.

Beckenbauer also said that he planned to marry Burmester, with whom he has two children, Joel and Francesca, but said a date had not been set, “but it will happen,” he insisted.