Eintracht Frankfurt 2016/17 Away Shirt (Medium)

Eintracht Frankfurt entered the 2016/17 season carrying very little momentum.

The previous campaign had ended with the club fighting for its Bundesliga place in a relegation play-off against Nürnberg. Niko Kovač kept them up, then used his first full season to completely change the direction of the team.

By the twentieth league match, Frankfurt had climbed to third. Their form eventually dropped and they finished eleventh, but the season had already changed how the club saw itself. Instead of another relegation battle, supporters were watching a team capable of competing near the top of the Bundesliga. 

The real breakthrough came in the German Cup. Frankfurt reached the final for the first time since 2006 after defeating Borussia Mönchengladbach in a dramatic semi-final penalty shootout. They lost the final 2–1 to Borussia Dortmund, but returning to Berlin was a major step for a club that had spent years moving between survival fights and mid-table seasons. 

One year later, Frankfurt returned to the same final and won the trophy. That makes this away shirt part of the season when the turnaround first became visible: the year before the silverware, when Kovač’s team stopped looking like survivors and started looking ambitious again.