Eintracht Frankfurt

Lore & Background

Eintracht Frankfurt have either won or drawn more than three-quarters of their games as well as having finished the majority of their seasons placed in the top half of the table, but also having the highest number of losses in the league (717). With an average attendance of 59,071 in the 2025-26 Bundesliga season, the 4th highest attendance in the league. The player with the highest number of appearances (602) in the Bundesliga, Charly Körbel, spent his entire senior career as a defender for Eintracht Frankfurt. The club's primary rival is local club Kickers Offenbach, although, due to spending most of their history in different divisions, the two have only played two league matches within the last 40 years. With almost 14,000 active athletes in over 50 sports in 2024, Eintracht Frankfurt is the largest multi-sports club in the world with a professional football team.

Reader's Guide

From 1973 to 1981, Eintracht had arguably their most successful period of the Bundesliga era, winning three DFB-Pokals and the UEFA Cup. Many of the most iconic players from the club's history played during this era, such as Bernd Nickel, Charly Körbel, Bernd Hölzenbein, Jürgen Grabowski and Cha Bum-kun. The first title success came under Dietrich Weise in the 1973–74 DFB-Pokal, winning 3–1 in the final over Hamburger SV. Eintracht would win the cup again in 1975, beating MSV Duisburg 1–0.

That season, they played in the European Cup Winners' Cup for the first time, and in the 1975–76 campaign, they would go far, reaching the semi-finals. Despite beating West Ham 2–1 at home, Eintracht were beaten 3–1 in the second leg and were knocked out, while also finishing a relatively low ninth place in the Bundesliga. The club then had a difficult start to the 1976–77 season, but under new coach Gyula Lóránt, appointed in November, Eintracht went unbeaten in the second half of the season.

Lóránt, notable for introducing zonal marking to the Bundesliga, took Frankfurt into fourth place by the end of the season, finishing only two points behind champions Borussia Mönchengladbach. Soon, however, Lóránt would leave for Bayern Munich, with Dettmar Cramer coming the other way to coach Frankfurt. Cramer left at the end of the disappointing 1977–78 season, replaced by Otto Knefler, who soon had to leave on health grounds. In January 1979, Friedel Rausch joined the club as head coach.

This was one of two important arrivals in 1979, as Cha Bum-kun would sign for Eintracht in July, becoming the first Korean to play in Europe. He would quickly become an icon in Frankfurt, scoring 12 league goals in his debut season. Eliminating Aberdeen, Dinamo București, Feyenoord, and others, Eintracht won the UEFA Cup in the 1979–80 season.