Former German attacker Bernd Holzenbein died at the age of 78 after a long and serious illness.
Holzenbein, who spent most of his career playing for Eintracht Frankfurt, died on Monday night.
During his playing career, the attacking midfielder helped West Germany win the 1974 World Cup final, notably winning the penalty that allowed his team to score the equalizer, before claiming a 2-1 victory.
Holzenbein began his playing career with Frankfurt and joined the club’s youth teams in 1967.
He would go on to play with the Bundesliga team for another 14 years, making 524 appearances and scoring 212 goals and 38 assists, before leaving to join US side FL Strikers.
The attacking midfielder would enjoy a brilliant career both domestically and internationally, winning three Cerman Cups and the UEFA Cup in 1980 with Frankfurt.
Frankfurt paid tribute to their former player on Tuesday, writing in a statement on X (formerly Twitter): “The Eintracht family mourns the loss of world champion Bernd Hölzenbein.
“As a player he won four titles with Eintracht, his 160 Bundesliga goals in an Eintracht shirt will probably remain unmatched forever, one foul of his has a place in every history book and one of his countless goals is hard to top. in terms of the combination of curiosity and importance.
“The Eintracht family always thinks of all this when the name Bernd Hölzenbein is mentioned.”
Frankfurt CEO Axel Hellmann added: ‘Bernd Hölzenbein has had a significant influence on our Eintracht for almost 60 years. He represents the ‘golden 70s’, as well as the 1980 European Cup victory and also the ‘Football 2000’ that our club played in the early 90s and in which he played a key role as vice-president.
“With Bernd Hölzenbein we not only lose one of the great identifying figures of our club, but also a faithful employee and a charming friend.”
According BILDThe former footballer recently suffered from severe dementia.
More to continue…