Eintracht Frankfurt

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Eintracht Frankfurt
Full name	Eintracht Frankfurt Fußball A.G.
Nickname(s)	Die Adler (Eagles), SGE (Spielgemeinde Eintracht), Launische Diva (moody diva)
Founded	1899
Ground	Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt
Capacity	52,000
Chairman	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Heribert Bruchhagen
Manager	Image:Flag of Germany.svg Friedhelm Funkel
League	Bundesliga
2005-06	Bundesliga, 14th
Image:Kit body stripesonblack2.png 　 Home colours 　 Away colours

Eintracht Frankfurt is a German sports club, based in Frankfurt, Hesse that is best known for its football team.

[edit] History

[edit] 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. These two teams merged in May of 1911 to become Frankfurter FV (Kickers-Viktoria), which in turn joined the gymnastics club Frankfurter Turngemeinde von 1861 to form TuS Eintracht Frankfurt von 1861 in 1920.

[edit] 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.

Through the late 20's and into the 30's Eintracht won a handful of local and regional championships, but never made it very far in the national championship rounds except for 1932 when they became runners-up in the German national championship (the final was lost 0-2 to Bayern Munich). In 1933, German football was re-organized into sixteen Gauliga 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.

They picked up where they left off after World War II playing as a solid side in the first division Oberliga Süd, capturing division titles in 1953 and 1959. Their first big success came on the heels of that second divisional title as they went on to a 5:3 victory over Kickers Offenbach to take the German national title and followed up immediately with an outstanding run in the European Champions Cup. Eintracht lost 3:7 to Real Madrid in an exciting final widely regarded as one of the best football matches ever played.

[edit] Founding member of the Bundesliga

The side continued to play good football and earned themselves a place as one of the original sixteen teams selected to play in the Bundesliga, Germany's new professional football league, formed in 1963. Eintracht played top flight football for over twenty seasons finishing in the top half of the table more often than not. Their best Bundesliga performances were five third-place finishes: they ended just two points back of champion VfB Stuttgart in 1991-1992.

They 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 along with 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 1998-1999, but they pulled through by beating defending champions Kaiserslautern 5:1 away, while 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 DFB (Deutscher Fussball Bund or German Football Association) 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.

Since 1997, Eintracht has bounced between the top two divisions and has often kept its fans on edge over whether or not the side would be demoted, but in the 2005-06 season supporters learned earlier than is often the case that the club would stay up, as they finished their Bundesliga season in 14th place, three points clear of relegation.

 id:ErsteLiga  value:red legend:1.Bundesliga
 id:ZweiteLiga  value:black    legend:2.Bundesliga

 bar:Leaders width:25 mark:(line,white) align:left fontsize:S 

 from:start till:1996 shift:(25,5)  color:ErsteLiga text: 63/64 - 95/96
 from:1996  till:1998 shift:(25,5)    color:ZweiteLiga text: 96/97 - 97/98
 from:1998  till:2001  shift:(25,5)  color:ErsteLiga text: 98/99 - 00/01
 from:2001  till:2003  shift:(25,5)  color:ZweiteLiga text: 01/02 - 02/03
 from:2003  till:2004  shift:(25,5)  color:ErsteLiga text: 03/04
 from:2004  till:2005  shift:(25,5)  color:ZweiteLiga text: 04/05
 from:2005  till:end  shift:(25,5)  color:ErsteLiga text: 05/06 - today

[edit] Success outside the Bundesliga

The club has enjoyed considerable success in competition outside the Bundesliga. They won the German Cup in 1974, 1975, 1981, and 1988, and took the UEFA Cup over another German team – Borussia Mönchengladbach – in 1980. More recently, Eintracht were the losing finalists in the 2006 German Cup. Their opponents in the final, Bayern Munich, were Bundesliga champions that year, which earned the eagles a place in the group stage of the UEFA Cup. As a result Eintracht received the place in that competition normally awarded to the German Cup winner.

[edit] Honours

• German Championship (pre-Bundesliga)
  • Champions: 1958-59
  • Runners-up: 1931-32
• 2nd Bundesliga
  • Winners: 1997-98
• South German Championship
  • Champions: 1929-30, 1931-32, 1952-53, 1958-59
  • Runners-up: 1912-13+, 1913-14+, 1930-31, 1953-54, 1960-61, 1961-62 (+ as Frankfurter FV)
• DFB-Pokal
  • Winners : 1974, 1975, 1981, 1988
  • Runners-up: 1964, 2006
• UEFA Cup
  • Winners : 1980
• UEFA Intertoto Cup
  • Winners : 1967
• Coppa delle Alpi
  • Winners : 1967

[edit] Players

[edit] 2006/2007 squad

As of 22nd November, 2006

[edit] 2006/2007 transfers

In

Out

[edit] Famous players

The players in bold typeface are still active in football.

¹ - Player is currently playing for the club.

[edit] Greatest ever team

The following team was voted the greatest ever Eintracht Frankfurt team by supporters.

• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Uli Stein
• Image:Flag of Austria.svg Bruno Pezzey
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Willi Neuberger
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Karl-Heinz Körbel
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Jürgen Grabowski
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Andreas Möller
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Norbert Nachtweih
• Image:Flag of Austria.svg Wilhelm Huberts
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Nickel
• Image:Flag of Germany.svg Bernd Hölzenbein
• Image:Flag of Ghana.svg Anthony Yeboah

[edit] World Cup Winners in Frankfurt

World Cup 1954 - West Germany

• Alfred Pfaff

World Cup 1974 - West Germany

• Jürgen Grabowski
• Bernd Hölzenbein

World Cup 1990 - West Germany

• Uwe Bein

[edit] Current club staff

[edit] Club Presidents