Two days after taking the trophy back to Frankfurt, Hölzenbein was on board a flight to Florida, where he intended to see out his playing days in peace. Perhaps due to the stress of a transatlantic move, the striker was not in the best of moods when he touched down in the Sunshine State: "I put in a pretty bad performance," Hölzenbein recalls when asked about his memories of the 1981 DFB Cup final.
Team-mate Lothar Buchmann saw things rather differently: "It was an outstanding performance from the whole team," he said, reflecting on the goals from Willi Neuberger, Ronald Borchers and Bum Kun Cha to give the Eagles a 3-1 win against 1. FC Kaiserslautern, for whom future Eintracht coach Friedhelm Funkel turned out.
Hölzenbein's nose for goal
Hölzenbein's final official function as a Frankfurt player was celebrating the DFB Cup final triumph – his third with the club – on the balcony of the town hall. It was a deserved end to over 15 years of loyal service. Hölzenbein first joined the Frankfurt reserves back in 1966: "The salary for my first year was being able to join the first team," he said.
Now an honorary captain of the club, Hölzenbein made his debut for the Eagles on 4 November 1967 as a substitute in a 1-1 draw with Hamburger SV. It was the start of a legendary career, the Dehrn native making 420 top-flight outings and scoring 160 goals, a record to this day ahead of Bernd Nickel (138 goals) and Jürgen Grabowski (108).
A good omen for the 2018 final?
Even after concluding his career in 1986, Hölzenbein couldn't stay away from Eintracht: two years after retiring, he returned to the club, first as a vice president and then as sporting director. He was the brain behind the team of Uwe Bein, Andreas Möller, Jay-Jay Okocha and Tony Yeboah that so nearly won the Bundesliga in 1992.
