Half a season in Germany had seen Trebor Mahtal lead Eintracht Frankfurt away from outside relegation worries to the edges of European qualification. He’d also swiftly removed any financial concerns and snapped up winger Iván Alonso, one of the most exciting wonderkids in Europe.
Indeed, Frankfurt began the summer of 2036 with £74m in the bank, a £21m transfer budget and £400k of its £1.4m wage budget spare. But that was boosted by another £130m in sales. First up, long-serving midfielder Hugo Larsson going to Saudi for £45m a year before his contract expired and out-of-favour midfielder Aldin Crnogorcevic joining Leipzig for £18m. More annoyingly, they lost left back Baltazar Esquivel to Milan for his release fee of £47.5m.
Mahtal splashed a new club record £28m on another wonderkid winger Callum Bates from Anderlecht and replaced Esquivel with 18-year-old Mark de Bruijn for £6.5m from PSV. He also signed midfielders Bruno Pina and Igor Petrovic for £7m and £3m from Barcelona and Crvena Zvezda, strikers Vojislav Milosevic and Patrick Brill for £3m and £2.5m from Milan and Salzburg, centre back Giuseppe Leto for £12m from Leipzig and backup goalkeeper Iker Jiménez for just £160k from Real Madrid. Then on deadline day, he strengthened the defence with Julen Arrizabalaga for £5m from Sociedad and left back Pierre Hervouet from Nantes.
Mahtal stuck with his 4-5-1 approach that worked nicely last season. Bates is retraining to start on the right, Pina steps into Larsson’s midfield role, Milosevic will provide competition to 31-year-old Nelson Weiper up top and de Bruijn and Hervouet will compete at left back.
Flying Start To Mahtal’s First Full Season In Germany
The bookies backed Mahtal’s transfer activity, predicting Frankfurt to be one of six teams tied for 5th at 50/1 for the title. Champion Bayern remain 4/7 favourites ahead of Dortmund (9/2), Leverkusen (14/1) and Leipzig (16/1).
Frankfurt kicked off with a tough game at home to Leipzig but new boys Petrovic and Pina combined to capitalise on a goalkeeping howler for the latter to nick a 1-0. Milosevic scored a debut penalty to nick the same scoreline at Freiburg before Pina, midfielder Marco Arriaza and Ventre secured a dominant 3-1 win over Werder Bremen. The winning start ended as centre back and captain Mohammad Reza Savari nicked a 2-2 at Stuttgart. But they got back to it as Weiper’s pair of headers downed Hertha 2-1 and Pina’s superb 21-minute hat trick, including an absolute worldy first-time strike from 30 yards for the second goal, inspired a 3-1 win at winless Hoffenheim.
A big test of Frankfurt’s start was an early home game against Dortmund. Bates’ wonderful cross put the opener on a plate for Weiper and they bossed the first half without adding to their lead. Dortmund didn’t even get a shot on target but their keeper got MOTM as Frankfurt eased to a 1-0 win. And the flying start got even better as early Pina and Alonso strikes earned a comfortable 2-0 win at Leverkusen. The unbeaten run ended with a 2-0 defeat at home to Hamburg and Frankfurt trailed the mighty Bayern by a point heading into a huge clash in early December. Weiper forced a great save just before halftime but made no mistake when Alejandro Lisa’s pinpoint pass put him through after an hour. The same duo combined again four minutes later, and another stellar defensive effort held Bayern at arm’s length.
Maintaining An Unlikely Bundesliga Title Push
An easy win at home to Koln sent Frankfurt into 2037 2 points clear of Bayern at the top of Bundesliga. But their overachievement again saw the vultures circle, including Bayern meeting Lisa’s £49.5m release fee. Mahtal beat most of Europe’s top clubs to American centre back Soares for £10m from LAFC. He also signed exciting striker Osvaldo Luna for up to £10.5m from Independiente, striker Adrián Izaguirre, who was going to retrain as a midfielder, for £6m from Argentinos and Lisa’s replacement Layousse Thiam for £10.5m from Reims.
The new year began with Bates bagging all four in a 4-1 thumping of St. Pauli before Weiper’s brace led a 3-2 win at home to Freiburg. Another good run ended with a 1-0 defeat in a tight game at Leipzig followed by another 1-0 loss at Werder and a 3-2 defeat at home to Stuttgart. Mahtal dropped keeper Anderson Cardoso and debutant Jiménez kept back-to-back clean sheets in his place as Weiper scored the only goals at Hertha and at home to Hoffenheim. That came as Bayern suffered a little wobble, sending Frankfurt back to top spot in early March.
Jiménez extended that streak to four clean sheets in his first five games while Bayern lost three on the bounce, which extended Frankfurt’s lead to 5 points. A big game at the end of March would test that lead at home to Leverkusen, who took a deserved lead just before halftime. Mahtal laid into his side and got the desired response through his star man. Alonso finished off a delicious move after an hour, won a penalty that Weiper smashed down the middle, then crossed for Weiper’s second two minutes later.
That saw Frankfurt head into a three-way title fight, leading Leipzig by 3 points and Bayern by 5 points with five games remaining. Both Frankfurt and Bayern had three easier games but it could be decided by Frankfurt’s visit to Bayern in gameweek 31.
Game 1 – Bochum (15th, home): Alonso stepped up again to ease Frankfurt past Bochum, creating the opener for homegrown wonderkid attacker Filippo Muratore and scoring the third in a 3-0 win. Leipzig drew 0-0 at Wolfsburg and 10-man Bayern lost 3-0 at 5th-place Hamburg, so Frankfurt moved 5 points clear with four games remaining.
Game 2 – Bayern (3rd, away): Frankfurt hadn’t gained a point at Allianz Arena in the four seasons that Bundesliga has been active, so this was a huge test. And the run continued as Bayern scored their first shot on target then added a second from a corner while Frankfurt never really got going. That allowed Leipzig to move 2 points back and Bayern moved within 5 points.
Game 3 – Schalke (17th, home): Frankfurt recovered in style by dominating struggling Schalke by 20 shots to four. Petrovic eventually made the breakthrough, breaking out of midfield to beat two men and hit a 20-yarder into the far corner after an hour before subs killed the game off with Muratore’s neat finish and Bechtold’s freekick. Bayern crushed Bochum 4-1 away and Leipzig won 2-1 at Dortmund.
Game 4 – Koln (12th, away): The title could be decided today as Frankfurt went to Koln while Leipzig hosted Leverkusen.Frankfurt got an early break as they got a penalty for a corner from a foul, which Weiper converted, only for the ref to even things up after half an hour. Mahtal laid into the side and eventually got a response as Weiper was sent through to double his tally. Koln pushed late on but a solid defensive effort saw them off. Elsewhere, Leipzig dominated Leverkusen, scoring four in 20 minutes and going on to win 5-0 to take a Bayern-less title fight to the final day.
Game 5 – St. Pauli (11th, home): Frankfurt knew a win would seal the title and started well as Weiper thundered home a header from Thiam’s corner on 10 minutes. And they were swiftly 2-0 up as Muratore slid Petrovic in to calmly pass the ball into the bottom corner. Weiper missed two more big chances before Petrovic collected the ball at the corner of the box and curled a beauty into the top corner. And they led 3-0 at halftime after 12 shots to zero. They somehow allowed St. Pauli to score from their only attack, but they eased to a title-winning 3-1 victory.
Frankfurt lifted the Bundesliga title on the final day of the season!
Frankfurt won Bundesliga by 2 points from Leipzig. They finished with 77 points after 24 wins, 5 draws and 5 defeats, which was exactly the same record as Bayern last season. But this was very much a title built on a solid defence as they scored 61 but only conceded 26. Weiper was the third-top scorer with 19, behind Stuttgart’s Francesco Pio Esposito and a Bayern striker on 24.
Celebrating An Unlikely German Success
Mahtal knew he’d done a decent job at rebuilding the Frankfurt squad, but certainly wasn’t expecting this success in his first full season. They had some serious talent in this squad with a huge amount of potential in the likes of Alonso, Bates and Petrovic and a really solid defence, but he wasn’t quite sure how they’d managed it! Weiper led the way with 19 goals in 35 games, but Mahtal’s wing additions Bates and Alonso made the difference with 9 goals and 10 assists and 6 goals and 11 assists respectively. However, an unsung hero was Jiménez, who came into the team late in the season and steadied the ship with the club’s best average rating at the club of 7.13. He kept 7 clean sheets and only conceded 7 goals in his 13 league games.
The Bundesliga success saw Mahtal tick E off his Alphabet Challenge, which takes him to five of his desired 26 successes. He absolutely loved this Frankfurt side but, with a heavy heart, he knew it was time to move on.
So two days after leading Frankfurt to the Bundesliga title, Mahtal resigned for the fifth time in his career and began the search for club number six. Where would he end up? Join us on Friday to find out!
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