Bernd Holzenbein dies aged 78: Tributes pour in for German World Cup winner and former Eintracht Frankfurt striker as he dies after long illness

The former German striker Bernd Holzenbein has passed away after a long and serious illness at the age of 78.

Holzenbein, who spent the majority of his career playing for Eintracht Frankfurt and is the club’s all-time leading Bundesliga goalscorer, died on Monday evening.

During his career, the attacking midfielder helped West Germany win the 1974 World Cup final on home soil, most notably winning the penalty that Paul Breitner scored to help his side equalize against the Netherlands and eventually claim a 2-1- victory.

Holzenbein started his playing career with Frankfurt and joined the club’s youth team in 1967.

He would go on to play with the Bundesliga side for another 14 years, making 524 appearances while returning 212 goals and 38 assists, before leaving to join American Fort Lauderdale Strikers, Memphis Americans and Baltimore Blast.

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The attacking midfielder would enjoy a glittering career on both the international and domestic stages, winning three Cerman Cups and the 1980 UEFA Cup with Frankfurt. He subsequently retired from professional football in 1983.

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 unsurpassed forever, one mistake on him has a place in every history book and one of his countless goals is hard to beat in terms of the combination of curiosity and importance.

‘The Eintracht family will always think of all this when the name Bernd Hölzenbein is mentioned.’

Frankfurt CEO Axel Hellmann added: ‘Bernd Hölzenbein has had a significant impact on our Eintracht for almost 60 years. He stands for ‘The Golden 1970s’ as well as for the European Cup victory in 1980 and also ‘Fodbold 2000’ which our club played in the early 1990s and where he played a key role as vice-chairman.

‘With Bernd Hölzenbein, we lose not only one of our club’s great identification figures, but also a loyal employee and a lovely friend.’

According to PICTUREthe ex-footballer had recently been affected by severe dementia.

More to follow…