After Amin Younis scored Eintracht Frankfurt’s second goal in yesterday’s 2-1 victory over table topping Bayern Munich he ran over to the sideline and grabbed a T shirt bearing the name and image of Fatih Saracoglu, who was one of the nine killed on 19th February 2020 by a gunman in Hanau. On a day when Eintracht put in their best performance of the season, it was more than about just sport at the Deutsche Post Arena.
Before the match the Frankfurt players warmed up in T shirts similar to Younis’, all bearing the names of the victim of the shootings last year. After the match Younis said that they had done it “so that we simply don‘t forget, but think about the people it impacted upon. It might not bring the victims back, but it shows their families that we are thinking about them“.
It was classy move by an Eintracht team that has been playing well all season, Hanau is a town a little over ten miles east of Frankfurt and the racist nature of the attack shocked the entire region. Frankfurt is the only city in Germany which has a majority of its residents come from an immigrant backrund and has embraced this diversity with open arms.
On a sporting level, the win has blown open a title race, which a fortnight ago appeared to be inexorably heading Bayern Munich’s way. If RB Leipzig can win at Hertha BSC this afternoon, the gap between themselves and FCB will be down to only two points. Eintracht and Wolfsburg, themselves 3-0 winners away at Bielefeld on Friday night, are in contention, both now seven points behind the leaders. There may yet be more twists and turns in the race to secure this season’s Bundesliga crown.
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