Sir Alex Ferguson is given lifetime membership by Eintracht Frankfurt… but can you guess the bizarre reasons why the Man United legend has been honoured?
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Sir Alex Ferguson has bizarrely been given a lifetime membership of Eintracht Frankfurt.
The legendary former Manchester United manager, 82, was visited by a Bundesliga delegation after they traveled to Aberdeen to face the Scottish team in the Europa Conference League.
He also received a Frankfurt shirt with his name and number 10 on the back.
Ferguson has weak ties with Frankfurt from his time as a player and manager in Scotland.
His first game for Rangers, which he joined from Dunfermline, was against the German team in a pre-season friendly in 1967, which they won 5–3 and he scored a hat-trick.
Sir Alex Ferguson has been honored with a lifetime membership of Eintracht Frankfurt
Ferguson, 82, was also presented with a Frankfurt shirt after becoming a life member of the club
He scored a hat-trick against Frankfurt on his debut for Rangers in a pre-season friendly in 1967
Ferguson had attended a match between Rangers and Frankfurt in the European Cup seven years earlier, in 1960. The Scot was in the second leg at Ibrox as the German side ran out 6-3 winners to complete a thumping 12-4 win.
He later faced Frankfurt as manager at Aberdeen in the UEFA Cup in 1979, with the Scottish team losing 2-1 on aggregate after a 1-0 defeat in the second leg in Germany – and Ferguson revealed he learned a valuable lesson from the encounter had learned. .
“Frankfurt were the better team, but we saved the match with the equalizer,” Ferguson said in an interview after being awarded the lifetime membership.
‘We had the chance to travel to Frankfurt, where we lost 1-0. Bernd Holzenbein scored the goal in the second game, which put us out of the competition.
‘I learned an important lesson when we played abroad. Some players went outside after the game. Then I made sure something like that would never happen again.’
Ferguson retired from football in 2013 after overseeing an unprecedented period of success at United, winning 38 major trophies.
He is still a regular at United matches and was also spotted at Cheltenham last week when Monmiral’s 25-1 gave him his first ever winner at the famous horse racing festival.
