Around 200,000 fans celebrated their Europa League heroes again into the night in Frankfurt on Thursday. The matchwinner received a very special ovation.
After landing in Sevilla, the Eintracht squad first made their way from the airport to the Römer in a motorcade that lasted several hours. There, shortly after 9.30pm, the trophy presentation took place on the balcony in front of an enthusiastic crowd that had been waiting since the afternoon. After the heat and the party night from Wednesday to Thursday, most of the protagonists were noticeably exhausted. Nevertheless, they set emotional highlights once again.
“We have brought romance back into football “
“This team, the coaching team and the staff have pushed boundaries,” praised board spokesman Axel Hellmann, “not just in one game, but in an entire competition. In doing so, we have brought romance back into football.” In the same breath, Hellmann invoked “the extreme metaphysics that play a role in football”.
The fact that Eintracht had won the first European trophy since 1980 so soon after the deaths of club legends Jürgen Grabowski and Bernd Nickel was striking proof, he said. No one can tell me anything else,” Hellmann said. The Europa League title would therefore be dedicated to Grabowski, “Eintracht Frankfurt’s greatest footballer”, to whom the supporters once again paid homage with the famous song lines: “We’ve seen Eintracht in the final, with Jürgen, with Jürgen … “
Glasner praises the “great unity” of team, club and fans
It was not only in these moments that the symbiosis between club, team and fans was again abundantly clear, as it so often is on the Römerberg. “You can win titles by spending a lot of money,” shouted success coach Oliver Glasner into the microphone, “or by forming a big unit. A big unit in the team, a big unit in the club, a big unit with you – and that’s the only way we did it. “
At the centre of the ovation was one man in particular, who had undoubtedly been the match-winner in the triumph against Rangers: Kevin Trapp. The keeper recalled how he followed the 2018 cup victory in Paris via mobile phone and shed tears of emotion as one of the main figures on the Römerbalkon some four years later. Team-mate Martin Hinteregger promptly joined in the fans’ tributes to Trapp, who now also wants to see him as the national team’s No. 1 goalkeeper: “Neuer on the bench, Neuer on the bench,” he chanted for minutes on Römerberg. Hinteregger was careful to point out that Manuel Neuer was of course also “a great goalkeeper”…
Feldmann’s speech becomes unintentionally memorable
Neither was there a dry eye in the welcoming speech by Frankfurt’s Lord Mayor Peter Feldmann (SPD), whose appearance was rather unintentionally memorable. The 63-year-old head of the city, who is currently under fire anyway because of alleged post-fixing in favour of his wife, spoofed several players’ names, such as Makoto Hasebe or Ajdin Hrustic, made CFO Oliver Frankenbach the “sports director” and consequently left the actual incumbent Markus Krösche unmentioned. Of course, such minor mishaps did not dampen the exuberant atmosphere on this evening.
