- Planet Sport writer
- 30 August 2024
Frankfurt eye Brighton's Mahmoud Dahoud as Oscar Hojlund replacement
Eintracht Frankfurt are reportedly making strides in their pursuit of Brighton midfielder Mahmoud Dahoud.
Eintracht Frankfurt are a football club based in Frankfurt, Germany. They play in the Bundesliga, the top tier of German soccer. They were German champions in 1959, have won the DFB-Pokal five times and have won the UEFA Cup/Europa League twice.
They are nicknamed 'Die Adler' (The Eagles) and play their home matches at the Deutsche Bank Park, which has a capacity of 51,500. Frankfurt have one of the highest attendance ratings in world soccer.
Some of the great players to play for Eintracht Frankfurt over the years have included Andreas Moller, Tony Yeboah and Jay-Jay Okocha. Long-serving Germany national team head coach Joachim Low played for Die Adler between 1981 and 1982.
Eintracht Frankfurt's early history
Eintracht Frankfurt can be traced back to 1899, when Frankfurter Fussball-Club Viktoria von 1899 and Frankfurter Fussball-Club Kickers von 1899 were both founded. The former are widely regarded as the 'original' Eintracht Frankfurt.
Both clubs were founding members of the Nordkreis-Liga in 1909 and they merged in 1911, winning three league titles between 1912 and 1914 and qualifying for the Southern German championship in each one of those seasons.
Frankfurter FV joined gymnastics club Frankfurter Turngemeinde von 1861 and TuS Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 was formed in 1920. To this day, Eintracht Frankfurt eV has 19 sections and sports played under that name with the connection to the local community, including athletics, boxing and hockey - expanding to include table football and Esports in recent years.
Frankfurt reached the final of the 1932 German championship, losing 2-0 to Bayern Munich. In 1938, they won the Gauliga Sudwest First Division. Another league title would follow in 1953 in regional soccer in the Oberliga Sud. They followed up in 1958/59, going on to beat local rivals Kickers Offenbach 5-3 to take the 1959 German national title - their first and only German top-flight title. Their national success qualified them for the following season's European Cup.
The 1960 European Cup final
In 1960, Eintracht Frankfurt embarked on a superb European Cup run, qualifying for the final after mauling Rangers by an aggregate score of 12-4 over the two legs of their semi-final. The win denied the Glasgow club a place in the final which took place in their home city. A star-studded Real Madrid were Die Adler's opponents in an exhilarating final.
Eintracht took the lead at Hampden Park with a goal from Richard Kress. However, Real soon took command of the tie, scoring seven unanswered goals - four by tournament top scorer Ferenc Puskas and three by Alfredo Di Stefano. Two further goals were mere consolations for Die Adler, who eventually lost 7-3.
A founding member of the Bundesliga
The Bundesliga was formed in 1963 and Eintracht Frankfurt were one of the 16 original teams selected to play in Germany's new top tier. In the very first Bundesliga season, Eintracht Frankfurt finished third behind champions FC Koln and Meidericher SV.
Frankfurt remained in the Bundesliga for the first 33 seasons of its existence, consistently finishing in the top half for the most part but without taking the final step to win a Bundesliga title.
The club have been a consistent presence in Germany's top tier for the last decade following a solitary season in 2. Bundesliga.
Eintracht's golden years
Eintracht Frankfurt enjoyed an era of huge success in the 1970s and 1980s. They won DFB-Pokal titles (the German equivalent of the English FA Cup) in 1973/74, 1974/75, 1980/81 and 1987/88.
Dietrich Wiese presided over the team in two separate spells between 1973-1976 and 1983-1986. He proved to be one of the most important managers in the history of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Either side of Wiese's spells, Friedel Rausch was in charge of Eintracht Frankfurt for just 18 months. In this spell he led the club to their second European trophy, lifting the UEFA Intertoto Cup in 1966/67.
Bundesliga clubs dominated the latter stages of the 1979/80 UEFA Cup (now known as the UEFA Europa League), with all four semi-finalists playing their soccer in Germany.
It would be Frankfurt who would emerge on top by beating Bayern Munich in their semi-final and overcoming Borussia Monchengladbach in the two-legged final. The score finished 3-3 on aggregate but Frankfurt took the trophy on the away goals rule in front of 59,000 fans at their home stadium.
Frankfurt finished third in the Bundesliga for the second time in their history under Wiese in 1974/75. In the early 1990s, their league form was more consistently impressive as they finished in the top five every season between 1989/90 and 1993/94.
The closest Eintracht Frankfurt have come to winning the top flight in the Bundesliga era was in 1991/92, when they finished third, only two points behind winners VfB Stuttgart.
Die Adler also finished third in 1989/90 and 1992/93.
Relegation and return to the top flight
Eintracht Frankfurt were relegated at the end of the 1995/96 season after a disastrous 17th-place finish in the Bundesliga. They were promoted again at the second attempt in 1997/98, but slipped back down in 2000/01.
Despite Eintracht Frankfurt securing promotion to the top flight in 2003, financial difficulties continued to haunt the club. They were relegated again in 2003/04 and bounced back up immediately once again.
After their relegation in 2010/11 and subsequent promotion in 2011/12, Eintracht Frankfurt finally stabilised and have been in the Bundesliga ever since.
Niko Kovac was appointed manager in March 2016 and led the club into a new era of success. In 2017/18, they beat Bayern Munich 3-1 in the final of the DFB-Pokal. Kovac would go on to take charge of Bayern Munich and served as their manager for a year and a half, but Eintracht Frankfurt would continue to excel even after his departure.
They followed up their DFB-Pokal success by reaching the semi-finals of the 2018/19 UEFA Europa League under Adi Hutter. Here, they met Chelsea, drawing both the first and second legs 1-1 thanks to goals home and away by Luka Jovic. Chelsea took the tie on penalties and went on to beat Arsenal in the final.
The recent era of success for Eintracht Frankfurt has been marked by the contributions of star players such as Jovic, Sebastien Haller, Ante Rebic and Kevin Trapp.
Eintracht Frankfurt have finished around mid-table in every Bundesliga season since 2016/17. After that they have finished 11th, 8th, 7th, 9th, 5th and 11th.
Europa League win
Frankfurt won their Group qualifying round remaining unbeaten in matches against Olympiacos, Fenerbahce and Antwerp.
A 3-2 aggregate win over Betis in extra-time saw them through the round of 16, they then pulled off a stunning 4-3 aggregate win over Barcelona in the quarter-finals and eased past West Ham 3-1 (agg.) in the semis.
They beat Rangers 5-4 on penalties in the final after a 1-1 draw in extra-time, Rafael Borre scored the club's goal in the 69th minute.
The 2022/23 season was not as successful for Eintracht Frankfurt. They finished runners-up in the UEFA Super Cup and DFB-Pokal, but dropped out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage. They finished seventh in the Bundesliga, qualifying for the Europa Conference League.
Eintracht Frankfurt's biggest rivals
Kickers Offenbach are Eintracht Frankfurt's main rivals. The clubs are in close proximity to each other. Kickers Offenbach were runners-up in the German national championship in 1950 and 1959, when they lost the final to Eintracht Frankfurt. Currently, they compete in the Regionalliga Sudwest.
Eintracht Frankfurt also have rivalries with FC Kaiserslautern and FSV Mainz, as well as Darmstadt 98.
They used to have a rivalry with FSV Frankfurt, but Eintracht Frankfurt have been by far the stronger force in German soccer since the Second World War. This local rivalry has thus faded and relations between FSV Frankfurt and Eintracht Frankfurt supporters are largely friendly.
A big fanbase in Frankfurt
In the 2018/19 season, Eintracht Frankfurt had an average home league attendance of 49,794 at Deutsche Bank Park (more commonly known as Waldstadion among supporters) - making them one of the most-followed clubs in the Bundesliga.
Eintracht Frankfurt supporters have a longstanding bond with those of Oldham Athletic in Greater Manchester, England. It dates back to supporters meeting at an international soccer tournament over 30 years ago. Some supporters still visit the other club's home matches every season.
Eintracht's finances
The club has profited handsomely in recent years from the sales of star players. Perhaps most notably, Luka Jovic was sold to Real Madrid for a reported fee of €60million plus bonuses. However, Forbes reported that not all the money from that deal was set to go to Eintracht Frankfurt, with some of it meant for Benfica.
Nevertheless, according to Forbes, the Jovic deal set Eintracht Frankfurt on course to break the €200million revenue barrier for the first time in their history.
At the end of the 2021/22 season, Eintracht Frankfurt recorded a turnover of €248.4million.
