Eintracht Frankfurt

Club origins

The origins of the side go back to a pair of football clubs founded in 1899: Frankfurter Fußball-Club Viktoria von 1899 – regarded as the "original" football side in the club's history – and Frankfurter Fußball-Club Kickers von 1899. Both clubs were founding members of the new Nordkreis-Liga in 1909. These two teams merged in May 1911 to become Frankfurter Fußball Verein (Kickers-Viktoria), an instant success, taking three league titles from 1912 to 1914 in the Nordkreis-Liga and qualifying for the Southern German championship in each of those seasons. In turn, Frankfurter FV joined the gymnastics club Frankfurter Turngemeinde von 1861 to form TuS Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 in 1920. (The German word Eintracht means 'harmony, concord,' and Eintracht X is the equivalent of English X United in the names of sports teams.^[1])

Pre-Bundesliga history

At the time, sports in Germany was dominated by nationalistic gymnastics organizations, and under pressure from that sport's governing authority, the gymnasts and footballers went their separate ways again in 1927, as Turngemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 and Sportgemeinde Eintracht Frankfurt (FFV) von 1899.

Historical chart of Eintracht Frankfurt league performance after WWII

Through the late 1920s and into the 1930s, Eintracht won a handful of local and regional championships, first in the Kreisliga Nordmain, then in the Bezirksliga Main and Bezirksliga Main-Hessen. After being eliminated from the national level playoffs after quarterfinal losses in 1930 and 1931, they won their way to the final in 1932 where they were beaten 0–2 by Bayern Munich, who claimed their first ever German championship. In 1933, German football was re-organized into sixteen Gauligen under the Third Reich and the club played first division football in the Gauliga Südwest, consistently finishing in the upper half of the table and winning their division in 1938.

Eintracht picked up where they left off after World War II, playing as a solid side in the first division Oberliga Süd and capturing division titles in 1953 and 1959. Their biggest success came on the heels of that second divisional title as they went on to a 5–3 victory over local rivals Kickers Offenbach to take the 1959 German national title and followed up immediately with an outstanding run in the 1960 European Cup. Eintracht lost 3–7 to Real Madrid in an exciting final that was widely regarded as one of the best football matches ever played,^[2] which included a hat-trick by Alfredo Di Stéfano and four goals by Ferenc Puskás.

Founding member of the Bundesliga

The side continued to play good football and earned themselves a place as one of the original 16 teams selected to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, formed in 1963. Eintracht played Bundesliga football for 33 seasons, finishing in the top half of the table for the majority of them. Their best Bundesliga performances were five third-place finishes: they ended just two points back of champion VfB Stuttgart in 1991–92.

The team also narrowly avoided relegation on several occasions. In 1984, they defeated MSV Duisburg 6–1 on aggregate, and in 1989 they beat 1. FC Saarbrücken 4–1 on aggregate, in two-game playoffs. Eintracht finally slipped and were relegated to 2. Bundesliga for the 1996–97 season. At the time that they were sent down alongside 1. FC Kaiserslautern, these teams were two of only four sides that had been in the Bundesliga since the league's inaugural season.

It looked as though they would be out again in 1998–99, but they pulled through by beating defending champions Kaiserslautern 5–1, while 1. FC Nürnberg unexpectedly lost at home to give Eintracht the break they needed to stay up. The following year, in another struggle to avoid relegation, the club was "fined" two points by the German Football Association (DFB) for financial misdeeds, but pulled through with a win by a late goal over SSV Ulm on the last day of the season. The club was plagued by financial difficulties again in 2004 before once more being relegated.

Between 1997 and 2005, Eintracht has bounced between the top two divisions.

The 2010–11 season ended with the club's fourth Bundesliga relegation. After setting a new record for most points in the first half of the season, the club struggled after the winter break, going seven games without scoring a goal. Despite winning the next game, Frankfurt sacked coach Michael Skibbe, replacing him with Christoph Daum.^[3] The change in coaches did little to improve Eintracht's fortunes. Frankfurt achieved only three draws from the last seven games of the season and were relegated on the 34th matchday.^[4]

One year later, Eintracht defeated Alemannia Aachen 3–0 on the 32nd match day of the 2011–12 season, thus qualifying for the Bundesliga.^[5]

In 2017–18, Eintracht had the 20th highest attendance in Europe, ahead of such prominent clubs as Atlético de Madrid, Inter Milano and Paris Saint-Germain.

Success outside the Bundesliga

The club has enjoyed considerable success in competition outside the Bundesliga. Eintracht famously lost the European Cup final to Real Madrid on 18 May 1960 at Hampden Park 7–3 in front of 127,621 spectators. It is one of the most talked about European matches of all time, with Alfredo Di Stéfano scoring three and Ferenc Puskás scoring the other four in Real's victory.

In 1967, Eintracht won the Intertoto Cup after beating Inter Bratislava in the final.

Eintracht won the DFB-Pokal in 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988 and in 2018, and took the UEFA Cup over another German team, Borussia Mönchengladbach, in 1980. Also, Eintracht were the losing finalists in the 2005–06 DFB-Pokal. Their opponents in the final, that year's Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, previously qualified to participate in the Champions League. As a result, Eintracht, received the DFB-Pokal's winner's place in the UEFA Cup, where they advanced to the group stage. In 2017 DFB-Pokal they were defeated in the final match by Borussia Dortmund and made it the next year again into the final, which they won 3-1 against Bayern Munich.

Besides playing friendlies against famous clubs from all of the world, Eintracht also played friendly matches against national teams from the following countries: Argentina, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Colombia, Czechoslovakia, Egypt, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Kenya, Kosovo, Kuwait, Luxembourg, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, Poland, Romania, South Korea, Tunisia and Vietnam.

National

• German Championship^[6]
  • Champions: 1959
  • Runners-up: 1932
• DFB-Pokal^[6]
  • Winners: 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988, 2018
  • Runners-up: 1964, 2006, 2017
• 2. Bundesliga^[6]
  • Winners: 1997–98
  • Runners-up: 2011–12
• DFB/DFL-Supercup^[6]
  • Runners-up: 1988, 2018

International

• European Cup/UEFA Champions League^[6]
  • Runners-up: 1959–60
• UEFA Cup/UEFA Europa League^[6]
  • Winners: 1979–80
• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • Winners: 1967
• Cup of the Alps
  • Winners: 1967

Regional

• Southern German Championship^[7]
  • Champions: 1929–30, 1931–32, 1952–53, 1958–59
  • Runners-up: 1912–13+, 1913–14+, 1930–31, 1953–54, 1960–61, 1961–62
• Nordkreis-Liga
  • Champions: 1911–12+, 1912–13+, 1913–14+
• Kreisliga Nordmain
  • Winners: 1919–20+, 1920–21
  • Runners-up: 1921–22
• Bezirksliga Main-Hessen:
  • Winners: 1927–28, 1928–29, 1929–30, 1930–31, 1931–32
  • Runners-up: 1932–33
• Gauliga Südwest/Mainhessen:
  • Winners: 1937–38
  • Runners-up: 1936–37
• Hesse Cup:
  • Winners: 1946, 1969^*
  • Runners-up: 1949
• Hesse Championship:
  • Champions: 1970^*, 2002^*
  • Runners-up: 1978^*, 1983^*, 1995^*
• + As Frankfurter FV
• ^* Achieved by Reserve Team

Other

Recent seasons

All time

Green denotes the highest level of football in Germany; yellow the second highest.

Current squad

As of 1 October 2018^[8]

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player 1 GK Frederik Rønnow 2 DF Evan N'Dicka 3 DF Simon Falette 4 FW Ante Rebić 5 MF Gelson Fernandes (vice-captain) 6 MF Jonathan de Guzmán 7 MF Marco Fabián 8 FW Luka Jović (on loan from Benfica) 9 FW Sébastien Haller 10 MF Filip Kostić 11 MF Mijat Gaćinović 13 DF Carlos Salcedo 15 DF Jetro Willems 16 MF Lucas Torró 18 MF Francisco Geraldes (on loan from Sporting CP) 19 DF David Abraham (captain) 20 MF Makoto Hasebe 21 MF Marc Stendera

No. Position Player 22 DF Timothy Chandler 23 DF Marco Russ (2nd vice-captain) 24 DF Danny da Costa 25 MF Patrice Kabuya 26 DF Deji-Ousman Beyreuther 27 FW Nicolai Müller 28 MF Allan Souza (on loan from Liverpool) 29 GK Felix Wiedwald 30 MF Şahverdi Çetin 31 GK Kevin Trapp (on loan from Paris Saint-Germain) 32 MF Nelson Mandela Mbouhom 33 DF Taleb Tawatha 34 FW Branimir Hrgota 35 DF Noel Knothe 36 FW Mischa Häuser 37 GK Jan Zimmermann 39 FW Gonçalo Paciência 41 GK Tobias Stirl

Players out on loan

Note: Flags indicate national team as defined under FIFA eligibility rules. Players may hold more than one non-FIFA nationality.

No. Position Player MF Aymen Barkok (at Fortuna Düsseldorf until 30 June 2019) MF Max Besuschkow (at Royale Union Saint-Gilloise until 30 June 2020) MF Danny Blum (at Las Palmas until 30 June 2019)

No. Position Player MF Marijan Ćavar (at Osijek until 30 June 2019) MF Daichi Kamada (at Sint-Truidense until 30 June 2019)

Medalist players at major international tournaments