Adolf Bechtold (20 February 1926 – 8 September 2012) was a German
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
player who spent his entire career with
Eintracht Frankfurt
Eintracht Frankfurt e.V. () is a professional sports club based in Frankfurt, Hesse, Germany. It is best known for its football club, which was founded on 8 March 1899. The team is currently playing in the Bundesliga, the top tier of the Germa ...
. Initially training as an instrument mechanic, he joined the club's youth academy in 1938 and played there until 1942 before moving up to the senior squad. He made over 400 appearances for Frankfurt until 1960 and won the German Championship in 1959 and the South German Championship in 1953 and 1959.
In the
1959-60 season, in the twilight of his career, Frankfurt reached the
final
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
of the European Cup where they were defeated by
Real Madrid
Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (, meaning ''Royal Madrid Football Club''), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional football club based in Madrid.
Founded in 1902 as Madrid Football Club, the club has traditionally wor ...
by a score of 7-3. Bechtold made only one appearance in that European Cup season before retiring as an honoured member and former
captain
Captain is a title, an appellative for the commanding officer of a military unit; the supreme leader of a navy ship, merchant ship, aeroplane, spacecraft, or other vessel; or the commander of a port, fire or police department, election precinct, e ...
of Eintracht Frankfurt.
Honours
*
German championship:
1958–59
*
European Cup
The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...
: runners-up
1959–60
*
Oberliga Süd Oberliga ( en, Premier league) may refer to:
Association football
* Oberliga (football), currently the fifth tier of the German football league system, formerly the first
* DDR-Oberliga, the first tier of football in East Germany until 1990, re ...
:
1952–53,
1958–59; runners-up
1953–54
See also
*
One-club man
List of one-club men may refer to:
* List of one-club men in association football
* List of one-club men in rugby league
* List of Major League Baseball players who spent their entire career with one franchise
* List of NBA players who have spent ...
References
Further reading
*
* Ulrich Matheja: Schlappekicker und Himmelsstürmer. Die Geschichte von Eintracht Frankfurt. Verlag Die Werkstatt. Göttingen 2004 (4. Ed. 2017) ().
* Werner Raupp: Toni Turek – „Fußballgott“. Eine Biographie. Hildesheim: Arete Verlag 2019 (1., rev. Ed.) (), p. 52–58.
External links
Adolf Bechtold at eintracht-archiv.de
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bechtold, Adolf
1926 births
2012 deaths
German men's footballers
Eintracht Frankfurt players
Men's association football defenders
Footballers from Frankfurt