Eintracht Frankfurt has oddly granted Sir Alex Ferguson a lifetime membership.
A delegation from the Bundesliga team paid a visit to the venerable 82-year-
old former Manchester United manager after they had traveled to Aberdeen to play the Scottish team in the Europa Conference League.
Additionally, a Frankfurt shirt bearing his name and the number 10 was given to him.
Ferguson’s connections to Frankfurt are shaky because of his time spent in Scotland as a manager and player.
In 1967, he played his first match for Rangers, having joined from Dunfermline, in a preseason friendly
against the German team, which they won 5-3.
Mail Online claims seven years before, in 1960, Ferguson had gone to see Rangers play Frankfurt in the European Cup. The Scot witnessed the German team’s 6-3 victory in the second leg at Ibrox, capping an overwhelming 12-4 triumph overall.
Later, in 1979, he managed Aberdeen against Frankfurt in the UEFA Cup. The Scottish team lost 2-1 on aggregate following a 1-0 loss in the second leg in Germany, and Ferguson said he took a valuable lesson from the match.
Alex Ferguson On Frankfurt
‘Frankfurt were the better team, but we saved the game with an equaliser,’ Ferguson said in an interview after being given 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 that knocked us out of the competition.
See Also: Christian Eriksen ‘Unhappy’ At Man Utd Situation After Talks With Erik Ten Hag
‘I learned an important lesson when we played abroad. Some players went out after the game. After that, I made sure that something like that never happened again.’
Ferguson, who oversaw an unparalleled run of success at United and won 38 major trophies, announced his retirement from football in 2013.
He frequently attends United games. Last week, he was seen at Cheltenham, where 25-1 shot Monmiral gave him his first-ever victory at the renowned horse racing festival.
COMMENTS