Eintracht Frankfurt and German football mourn the loss of a 1974 world champion: Jürgen Grabowski died in a hospital in Wiesbaden on Thursday evening at the age of 77.
This was confirmed by his wife on Friday of the German Press Agency.
The media group VRM reported first.
Grabowski played 44 international matches for the DFB and 441 matches in the Bundesliga for Eintracht, was world and European champion, UEFA Cup winner in 1980 and 1974 and 1975 DFB Cup winner.
In Frankfurt Grabowski was the playmaker, in the national team he mostly acted as a right winger – because of his competitors Wolfgang Overath and Günter Netzer.
"For me, he was one of the greatest artists we had at Eintracht - if not the greatest," says Bundesliga record player Karl-Heinz Körbel once.
For Overath he was “a very fine person, a super boy.
He could do everything with the ball.” Together with his club colleague Bernd Hölzenbein, Grabowski was part of the 1974 world champion team.
On his 30th birthday, Grabowski initiated the 2-1 victory in the World Cup final in Munich: pass to Rainer Bonhof, cross, goal and Gerd Müller's jump.
On that July 7, 1974, Grabowski thought: "The world is yours." He was thrown out of the team after the embarrassing 1-0 draw against East Germany, which hit him deeply.
As a substitute, however, he then managed the decisive 3:2 against Sweden - and he was back in the first eleven.
"I owe everything to this game," he kept saying.
After winning the World Cup, Grabowski resigned from the national team, but he continued to trump at Eintracht.
From 1965 to 1980 he played for Hessen, previously only in Biebrich.
When he won the UEFA Cup in 1980, Grabowski lifted the heavy cup in civilian clothes.
Klaus Hölzenbein was the first to present it to his fellow world champion and friend.
A foul by Lothar Matthäus and a serious foot injury had just ended Grabowski's splendid career.
More than 40,000 fans attended his farewell game between Eintracht and the 1974 World Cup team in what was then the Waldstadion.