Eintracht's Europa League love affair
A team that consistently delivers in Europe is an anomaly in German football
Before getting into the actual newsletter this week, I just want to shoutout Anthony Modeste for celebrating his goal for Köln on Saturday by advertising his own brand of coffee beans.
This sport just doesn’t stop delivering
Anyway, on with the show …
Sometimes it feels like certain players are just built for certain clubs. Something just clicks. And sometimes certain clubs are built for certain competitions. Like Eintracht Frankfurt in the Europa League.
It has been clear since their 2018/19 campaign that the fans live for these European nights, putting on spectacular choreos throughout their run to the semi-finals that season.
And they seemed to take their already superb support to a new level as they flocked to Barcelona. An estimated 30,000 Frankfurt fans were inside Camp Nou to witness an astounding 3-2 win.
Back in September I wrote about how Filip Kostić had wanted to leave for Lazio, only for a typo to keep him at the club as the transfer window closed. Of course he would be the man to score twice in Barcelona. In part because he is fantastic, and in part because these are the stories football tends to write.
And how could anyone be desperate to leave a club as well supported as this one?
The final whistle blew and some had processed the size of the win and the occasion more (or less) than others.
It is glorious to see Frankfurt enjoy these occasions. And it should send a message to everyone else in German football as well. Going far in competitions matters. The Europa League matters. As Bayern Munich made it 10 consecutive Bundesliga titles last weekend, days after SC Freiburg qualified for their first ever DFB Pokal final, I was left thinking of just how sacred silverware is and how German clubs have not pursued it aggressively enough beyond their own borders.
Frankfurt have become an exception. From 2007 to 2018, Eintracht spent just one season in Europe, heading home in the Europa League round of 32. In the last four seasons they’ve played in it three times and they’re now in their third semi-final.
When you look at some of the winners over the past decade and a bit — Sevilla, Villarreal, Porto — and losing finalists — Marseille, Dnipro, Braga, Fulham, Athletic Club — the Bundesliga must consider it a huge underachievement that nobody has held their own at this level. There hasn’t been a finalist from Germany since 2009. RB Leipzig, also in this week’s semi-finals, are the first non-Frankfurt semi-finalist from Germany since 2010. That’s despite the semi-regular appearances of Champions League regulars Dortmund, Schalke, Leverkusen, Wolfsburg. Between them they have 16 appearances in the competition since 2010 and have reached a meagre five quarter-finals, winning none of them.
If you cast the net wider to include Hoffenheim, Köln, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Hertha, there have been a further 10 Europa League campaigns from German clubs since 2010 without any additional quarter-final appearances.
German football fans like to complain about Bayern’s dominance and they like to complain about the nouveau riche but they consistently stumble in competitions they are more than good enough to make charges at. Some of Germany’s biggest and most well-supported clubs would do well to take a leaf out of Frankfurt’s book and see the Europa League, or indeed the Europa Conference League, as a stage to take seriously and a place to make history. Who knows, maybe they’d even pick up silverware at the end of it?