The importance of Jürgen Grabowski for German football history can be retold in many scenes, just one here as an example: 1974 World Cup final, Munich Olympic Stadium, Germany versus Holland. A stopwatch was just outlined on TV, it lay across the football pitch and you could see half time was approaching. From this clock, so to speak, Jürgen Grabowski passed the ball forward to Rainer Bonhof, “yes, Grabowski is playing,” commentator Rudi Michel said with a slightly enthusiastic undertone, and then Bonhof ran forward, ran past all the beautiful 1970s advertising boards , “Martini”, “C&A”, “Europa Möbel” finally played the ball inside to Gerd Müller. Then it went boom.
2-1, the gateway to the World Cup. Müller, the executor, completed what Grabowski had initiated. It was July 7, 1974, Grabowski’s 30th birthday.
The only excitement of an unexcited career: After winning the cup with Frankfurt Eintracht, Jürgen Grabowski (2nd from right) wears the exchanged HSV jersey with the wrong advertising.
(Photo: Horstmüller/Imago)
When one speaks of winning the 1974 World Cup, one naturally speaks first and with a certain justification of Beckenbauer, Maier, Müller, Breitner. But the title was also the title of Jürgen Grabowski, who had temporarily slipped out of the World Cup team before coming back and making it 3-2 as a substitute in the rain game against Sweden. Yes, this World Cup was also the tournament of Grabowski, the great strategist of Frankfurt Eintracht. A rarity in professional football, which is often so wide-legged: a quiet majesty. Even later, in old age, slim, gray short beard, tie pin, the whole man is enveloped in a completely unpretentious melancholy.
Grabowski hit the cross, which grew into a game of the century
Grabowski is one of the old football heroes who did not follow their playing days with a significant second career as an official, coach, expert or know-it-all. He was world champion, second in the World Cup, third in the World Cup, European champion, winner of the DFB Cup, winner of the Uefa Cup. The quiet artist was an extraordinarily successful artist, he was not a diva, as his club is said to be, but always part of the team. Former teammate Uli Hoeneß put it this way: “He had an ability that everyone envied: whenever he was substituted on, he was there immediately, he could completely turn games around and decide.” And next to the square? No scandals, no anger interviews. After the cup final in 1974, there was a bit of trouble, because after the shirt exchange he wore an HSV shirt with Campari advertising, and later received a few bottles from Campari.
Sometimes popular culture reached out to him, for example in the form of the Frankfurt trash metal band tankard. In their Eintracht anthem “Schwarz-weiß wie Schnee” they pay homage to Hessian sanctities in general and the Hessian hero Grabowski in particular: “We saw Eintracht in the final, with Jürgen, with Jürgen.” There’s also a video featuring Grabowski, holding guitars and trophies, and you can tell that trash metal isn’t his music. But his appearance is nonetheless of a certain dignity. And the shaggy musicians are noticeably enthusiastic.
Public holiday: Jürgen Grabowski (with Berti Vogts and Georg Schwarzenbeck, from left) holds the World Cup trophy on July 7, 1974 – it was his 30th birthday.
(Photo: Press photo Baumann/Imago)
Being successful is one thing – but you also have to be able to cope with it. Like Franz Beckenbauer, you can be omnipresent and at some point stumble. Like Uwe Seeler, you can be a permanently visible lucky charm. Like Berti Vogts, you can fight against being underestimated throughout your life. Like Lothar Matthäus, as an expert on pay TV you can stay in touch. How to deal with the public interest after your career is a challenge, and indeed everyone responds differently.
The importance of Grabowski for German football history can be retold in many scenes
Grabowski’s approach to fame is reminiscent of the writings of the American mythologist Joseph Campbell, who defined what makes a hero a hero. In a nutshell: someone quietly sets out, ventures out into the world, faces challenges, overcomes difficulties, achieves triumph, and after triumph – a crucial move in Campbell’s heroic journey – returns to silence.
The crowd remembers the hero, and the crowd longs for a reunion. After all, the hero isn’t dead. He’s just keeping a low profile. And he doesn’t have to write columns telling how his old club would have done it right. He doesn’t have to be on the talk shows all the time. He is there even when he is not there. As soon as they sing “Black and White Like Snow”, Grabowski is back. 441 Bundesliga games, 109 goals, all for Eintracht. Received the Uefa Cup in civilian clothes after beating Mönchengladbach because he was injured. The fans roared “Grabi, Grabi”, it was May 21, 1980, and the echo reverberates to this day.
The importance of Jürgen Grabowski for German football history can be retold in many scenes, another example: 1970 World Cup semi-finals in Mexico, Germany against Italy, the game is almost over, referee Yamasaki is already taking a breath to finally blow the whistle , Karl-Heinz Schnellinger slips into a flank and then the game goes into overtime, and only then does it grow into a game of the century. The flank that made all this happen was taken by the man they called Grabi.
Jürgen Grabowski, 77, died on Thursday evening, he was ill for a long time, dialysis patient, most recently a femoral neck fracture. Right now is the sad time of the minutes of silence. On Sunday, before the home game against Bochum, Eintracht quietly remembers their greatest football player.