A weekend with striker legend Tony Yeboah
On Saturday, 21 June 2014, about 200 Eintracht supporters gathered in front of the residential house in Melibocusstraße 86 in Frankfurt (Niederrad) for the official presentation of a larger-than-life wall-painting of Anthony Yeboah. The picture was drawn by Mathias Weinfurter, a local artist, who also had the idea of embellishing a house with the portrayal of former SGE striker Yeboah, a Ghanaian national. “I’ve had this plan for a long time”, Weinfurter said. The Fan Project Frankfurt rewarded 25-year-old Weinfurter, who worked with more than ten friends for more than two weeks on the painting, with the so-called “Im Gedächtnis bleiben” prize, a distinction for the fight against racism and intolerance.
The wall-painting, which was financed and supported by Eintracht fans and the Nassauische Heimstätte, the Melibocusstraße 86 building’s owner, is framed by the writing, “Wir schämen uns für alle, die gegen uns schreien.” (“We are ashamed of everbody who screams against us.”) This sentence was part of an open letter dating back to 1990. The letter was written by Yeboah together with fellow black football players Anthony Baffoe and Souleyman Sané as a response to repeated racist defamations in German football stadiums.
The painted house front can be seen when you ride the train from Frankfurt’s main station to the Commerzbank Arena, Eintracht’s home stadium. The Melibocusstraße 86 building sits right beside the urban train station Niederrad.
To the surprise of many, Tony Yeboah, who played for the Eagles from 1990 to 1995 and was awarded the Bundesliga top scorer’s “cannon” both in 1993 and 1994, took the long trip from Ghana to attend the official presentation of his wall-painting in person. Now, the painting even bears Yeboah’s personal signature. How great is that?
On the very next day, Tony, together with his son and daughter, visited Eintracht’s state of the art youth training center at „Riederwald“. There, he chatted with Eintracht’s upcoming hopeful, Cameroonian Nelson Mandela Mbouhom. One generation meets another! After having been taken around by Stefan Minden, Eintracht e.V.’s vice-president, and Eintracht’s football boarding school supervisor, Ingo Eichenauer, Yeboah was delighted with how things have developed in Frankfurt. He said, “I am very happy to be back here. It is nice to see how things have changed. You can feel the boost. I am very glad that Eintracht Frankfurt progress so well.”
Tony, it is always a pleasure having you as our guest – come back soon!
Eintracht hire Nikolov as a coach for their football school
Eintracht’s goalkeeper legend Oka Nikolov (40), nicknamed “Eternal Oka”, has joined the coaching staff of Eintracht’s “School of Football”. The football school, promoted and led by Eintracht legend Charly Körbel, gives kids a meaningful use of their leisure time and also helps in discovering and developing young talents early on. The school conducts football camps from one to five days, for example during public school holidays and on weekends.
“We are glad and proud that we were able to sign Oka as a coach and bring him back to Frankfurt after his trip to the United States”, said Charly Körbel. “Oka belongs with Frankfurt just like the skyscrapers, the river Main and our Eintracht do. The football school aims at teaching kids how to train like professional football players. Who could train them better than someone who recently played in Bundesliga?”
Next to his football school commitments, Oka will start working as goalkeeping coach with German Football Association (DFB) in September. He said, “Charly kept in touch with me even when I was in Philadelphia and Fort Lauderdale. I am glad that I can be part of the football school.”
So are we, Oka. Welcome back!
