From being severely hated by fans to becoming the clubs’ number one legend.
Between 1986-1988, 20-year-old Anthony Yeboah was undoubtedly one of the biggest names in Ghanaian football. He had scored over 40 goals in two seasons for Okwahu United.
He had received offers from giants Accra Hearts of Oak and Asante Kotoko but he wasn’t bothered about the moves. Okwahu United was then led by the revered Welbeck Abra-Appiah and funded by some of the richest businessmen in the country and Yeboah was financially okay.
In an interview in 2020, Yeboah revealed that after scoring on match days, he could walk through Kantamanto Market (where a lot of Kwahu businessmen were based) and return home with lot of money so he felt comfortable and money couldn’t entice him to move.
He struggled initially but a match in June 1989 changed everything. Saarbrucken faced Frankfurt in a relegation fight. Frankfurt won the first leg 2-0 but Yeboah did not only score twice in the return. He tore the Frankfurt defenders including the legendary Dietmar Roth apart.
Frankfurt Management kept tabs on Yeboah and signed him at the end of the season. A section of the fans extremely hated him being the first black player the team had ever signed.
In Germany now, Anthony Yeboah is a Eintracht Frankfurt football icon. 123 of the Ghana international’s 223 top-flight appearances were with Eintracht, where he scored 68 of his 96 goals in the German top flight. In 1993, and again the following year, he was Bundesliga top scorer but for all his scoring exploits out on the pitch, Yeboah is remembered in almost equal measure for his groundbreaking achievements away from it.
During his visit to Germany in 2014 on the invitation of a Television station as an analyst of the Brazil World Cup, several fans of the ex Black Stars striker took the opportunity to take photographs and autographs of their once celebrated team member.
One of them, a member of the famous Zeugen Yeboahs (Yeboah’s Witnesses) and a whole-hearted Frankfurt supporter decided to go one step further as he showed off a twenty year old inscripition of Yeboah’s name and the famous No. 9 tattooed on his back.
Yeboah, also a Leeds United star clearly didn’t mind, grinning while posing for a picture with the die-hard.
In the early 90s, together with SG Wattenscheid’s and Senegal’s Souleymane Sané (Leroy Sané’s father) and Ghanaian Anthony Baffoe of Fortuna Düsseldorf, he wrote an open letter drawing attention to the casual racism prevalent at the time both in Germany’s football stadiums and in everyday life.
Today, Yeboah’s overdimensional likeness is to be found decorating the gable end of a five-storey Frankfurt apartment block – a symbol of the ongoing battle against racism and discrimination.
In 1990, Tony Yeboah moved from FC Saarbrücken to Eintracht Frankfurt where he was at first booed by a section of fans and subjected to monkey-noises, amongst other racist insults, him being the first black player the team had ever signed.
In the Hesse metropolis, Yeboah quickly established himself as a deadly striker, silencing all critics. Equally adept with feet and head, his joyfully executed direct style of play mesmerised the fans to the point that soon, the Zeugen Yeboahs (Yeboah’s Witnesses) was formed and became an overnight cult success.
Yeboah was the Superstar-next-door for the people of Frankfurt and Rhein-Main area. His popularity helped pave a great deal of the way towards true racial-integration in the region, such was his profound influence on the fans and citizens, who had not all been sympathetic towards Africans until then.
▪️He was the top Bundesliga scorer twice with Frankfurt, in 1993 and 1994.
▪️In 1992-93 season, he was 4th on the Bundesliga goal king chart with 15 goals.
▪️In 1993-94 season, he won the Bundesliga Goal king with 20 goals for Frankfurt.
▪️In 1994-95, he won it again with 18 goals.
He became the first African to win the Bundesliga goal king. This was a country with some of the best goal scorers in the world and this cemented his name in Frankfurt history
The club had no option but to make the Black man Tony Yeboah captain of Frankfurt, becoming the first African to skipper a Bundesliga side.
Yeboah may have left for a huge transfer fee of £3.5million in 1995 to Leeds United but has legendary status in Germany is still enormous. From tattoos to big birthday celebrations for him at their stadium and his images in the museum.
To Eintratcht Frankfurt fans, Yeboah is beyond a legend. He is a football icon who shaped the club’s relationship between the black and white. He paved the way for more African players into the club. In 1994, Frankfurt signed Ghana’s Michael Osei based on recommendation of Yeboah .
Tony Yeboah is regularly invited by Eintracht to watch big games or as TV pundit. In 2022, the club flew Yeboah to Seville to watch them win their first European Cup in over 4 decades. He was presented the trophy as one of the few legends to get that honour.
There are very few African footballers who receive the kind of recognition and honour Eintracht Frankfurt gives to Tony Yeboah. It’s been almost three decades since Yeboah left Frankfurt but his status keeps increasing with the passing of the years.
?? TONY ‘YEGOALA’ YEBOAH ❤
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