Sir Alex Ferguson has become a lifelong member of Eintracht Frankfurt – recognising an association with the club dating back to 1960.
The legendary former St Mirren, Aberdeen and Manchester United manager accepted the invitation from the German club, whom he first saw play against his boyhood club Rangers on their run to the European Cup Final at Hampden, where they famously went down 7-3 to a star studded Real Madrid team.
Speaking of the match at Ibrox Ferguson said: “In the away game, Frankfurt beat Rangers 6-1. I was at the home game, when they came to Ibrox with 70,000 people in attendance. Rangers scored first and of course you then get hopeful. Saying that Rangers could come back. They ended up losing by six again.
“I went to the final in 1960 as well, hoping that Frankfurt would win, since they knocked out Rangers.
“We said: ‘Wow! A great German team.’ But then there was Puskás, Di Stefano, Gento. I don’t think there will ever be another team as charismatic as that Real Madrid team at the time.
“Puskás scored four goals and Stefano scored three. They were fantastic players. And the 7-3 was an amazing game. It was no disgrace to lose that game.”
Ferguson would then go on to play against the German side for the Light Blues seven years later, netting a hattrick in a 5-3 victory.
However, Frankfurt would get the better of Ferguson when they met again in the 1979 UEFA Cup, this time when he was in the dugout at Aberdeen.
The Dons went down 2-1 on aggregate over two legs before the SGE would go on to lift the trophy.
“Frankfurt were the better team, but we rescued the game with an equalizer. We had the chance to travel to Frankfurt, where we lost 1:0”, he added.
“Bernd Hölzenbein scored the goal in the second match to knock us out. It was a great lesson for me to go abroad.
“Some players went out clubbing after the game. Afterward, I made sure that such a thing never happened again.”
