Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a German professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The club currently plays in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the German football league system. Eintracht have won the German championship once, the DFB-Pokal five times, the UEFA Europa League twice and finished as runner-up in the European Cup (now known as the Champions League) once. The team was one of the founding members of the Bundesliga at its inception and has spent a total of 57 seasons in the top division, thus making them the seventh longest participating club in the highest tier of the league.
The club has 155,000 members, and thus is the fourth largest club playing in German football."Strukturelle Einigkeit", weltfussball, 1 July 2025,
Since 1925 their stadium has been the Waldstadion, which is currently named Deutsche Bank Park for sponsorship reasons.
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.
History
Club origins
The origins of the club go back to a pair of football clubs founded in 1899: Frankfurter Fußball-Club Victoria von 1899 – regarded as the original team 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-Victoria), 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' or 'concord', and so Eintracht is the equivalent of United in English in the names of sports teams.Harper Collins German Dictionary: German-English/English-German (Harpercollins, 1991; ), p. 203. 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 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 2–0 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, joining the new first division Oberliga Süd. In 1946, Eintracht won the first Hessenpokal, and finished third in the Oberliga Süd a year later. In 1953, they would win the Oberliga Süd title, qualifying Eintracht for the German championship, though they did not make it to the final.
National champions and European Cup finalists Former coach Paul Oßwald returned to the club for a third stint with Eintracht in 1958. In the 195859 season the club won their Oberliga again, qualifying for the 1959 German championship. Winning all six of the games in the group phase, Eintracht made it to the final with a perfect record; there, they would meet rivals Kickers Offenbach, the club that Oßwald joined from, and the runners up behind Eintracht in the Oberliga Süd. Frankfurt went on to win the final 53 after extra time, becoming German champions for the first and so far only time in front of 75,000 fans in Berlin's Olympiastadion.
As champions, Frankfurt would represent Germany in the 1959–60 European Cup, where they would come to international prominence. Having beaten BSC Young Boys and Wiener Sport-Club to make it to the semi-finals, they were drawn against Scottish champions Rangers, who were considered favourites, at least in Scotland – Rangers manager Scot Symon allegedly asked, "Eintracht, who are they?" before the game. Eintracht won the first leg 61 at home, in a performance described as the greatest in the club's history. They would score six more in the second leg at Ibrox, winning 124 on aggregate. After the game, the Rangers players gave their opponents a guard of honour as they left the pitch.
Eintracht would return to Glasgow for the final at Hampden Park, although they lost 7–3 to Real Madrid despite taking an early lead. The final was widely regarded as one of the best football matches ever played, remembered for a hat-trick by Alfredo Di Stéfano and four goals by Ferenc Puskás.
After their championship-winning year, Eintracht did not win the Oberliga again, though they were runners-up in 1961 and 1962. Both times they would finish second in the group phase of the German championship, missing out on the final.
Founding member of the Bundesliga The side 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 consecutive seasons, finishing in the top half of the table for the majority of them. In the inaugural season, Eintracht finished 3rd behind 1. FC Köln and Meidericher SV – the club has still never managed a better Bundesliga finish – and also reached the 1964 DFB-Pokal Final.1964 DFB-Pokal final – DFB
Eintracht finished in the top half of the Bundesliga every season until 1970–71. Although they didn't make it back to the European Cup, Eintracht did play in other non-UEFA European competitions, beating FK Inter Bratislava to win the 1967 Intertoto Cup in the last season of its original format. That year, they also reached the semi-final of the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, losing to Dinamo Zagreb.
Cup successes
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 31 in the final over Hamburger SV – due to the 1974 FIFA World Cup, which Hölzenbein and Grabowski had won with West Germany, the final was not played until August 1974.
Eintracht would win the cup again in 1975, beating MSV Duisburg 10. 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 31 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 FC Zbrojovka Brno in the earlier rounds of the UEFA Cup, Eintracht reached the semi-finals, at which point only West German teams remained. Drawn against Bayern Munich, they won 5–1 in extra time to earn a place in the final.
Eintracht lost 3–2 in the first leg of the final to Borussia Mönchengladbach, the reigning champions. The two away goals, scored by Harald Karger and Hölzenbein, would prove crucial. Two weeks later, they hosted the return leg. With the score still at 0–0, Friedel Rausch sent on teenager Fred Schaub with 13 minutes to play. Almost immediately, Schaub scored what proved to be only goal of the game, winning Eintracht the title on away goals.
As Lothar Buchmann succeeded Rausch, Eintracht won their third DFB-Pokal in 1981. This effectively marked the end of Eintracht's golden period, as they began their battle with relegation.
Mid-80s struggles and 1988 DFB-Pokal In 1984, they defeated MSV Duisburg 6–1 on aggregate in the relegation playoff after finishing 16th; in 1986 and 1987, they would finish 15th.
After years as a bottom-half club in the Bundesliga, Eintracht had a successful 1987–88 season, finishing in the top half of the league for the first time since 1982. More importantly, they won the 1987–88 DFB-Pokal, with a 1–0 win over VfL Bochum in the 1988 final. The goalscorer was Hungarian Lajos Détári, who became a hero among the club's fans. Only two days after the final, Détári was sold to Olympiacos for a large fee, helping to pay the club's debts.
In 1988–89 Eintracht found themselves in the relegation fight again. Jörg Berger was appointed coach and led the side to safety with a 4–1 aggregate win over 1. FC Saarbrücken in the relegation playoff.
Title challenges in the early 90s and first relegation
A year later, Berger had taken the club to 3rd place, and was recognised as the best coach in the league. Berger left in 1991 after a 4th-place finish, but the squad now included players considered among the Bundesliga's best, such as Uwe Bein, Uli Stein, Jørn Andersen, Manfred Binz, Tony Yeboah and Andreas Möller.
Dragoslav Stepanović took over as coach when Berger left, and Eintracht would finish 3rd in both seasons he coached, although he left before the end of 1992–93. Under Stepanović, Eintracht played what was considered some of the best football in Bundesliga history, making 'Stepi' a fan favourite to this day. In 1991–92, the club came closer than ever before to winning the Bundesliga. Going into the last game of the season, Eintracht were top of the table and only needed a win against already-relegated Hansa Rostock. With the scores level at 1–1 Eintracht were denied what seemed a clear penalty, they would go on to lose 2–1. Referee Alfons Berg later apologised for his decision, but VfB Stuttgart became champions. Eintracht also came close in 1993–94, under Klaus Toppmöller, leading the table at the halway point; however, they fell to 5th place and Toppmöller was sacked.