A modern melodrama: Bundesliga club Frankfurt hit back at critic over 'penis video'

Frankfurt am Main — Eintracht Frankfurt’s weekend began with a press-conference quip and ended with a social-media uppercut, turning a routine pre-match briefing into the Bundesliga’s newest digital-age morality play.

The spark came during Friday’s media availability when head coach Albert Riera, appointed only two weeks ago, was asked about barbs aimed at him on the Flatterball podcast. Former Germany striker Max Kruse and ex-Austria international Martin Harnik had mocked Riera’s media persona, with Harnik saying he would “find it pretty funny” if the Spaniard “faded away without making a mark.”

Riera, 43, responded with theatrical indifference—“Who? Are they footballers?”—and appeared ready to let the matter die. Instead, Eintracht Frankfurt’s official X account revived it late Friday night, quote-tweeting Bild’s coverage with a blunt rejoinder: “…questions to our head coach… should not be based on opinions from a podcast in which one of the two hosts has already had his d*** circulating through the internet.”

The reference re-opened a 2016 episode in which an intimate video, filmed by Kruse for his then-girlfriend, was leaked to German media. Kruse, now 36, never intended the clip for public consumption, prompting critics to accuse the club of publicly shaming a private transgression.

German football has rarely seen a club’s communications arm wade so aggressively into personal territory. While Riera’s charisma and English-language press conferences have already divided opinion in a traditionally understated football culture, Frankfurt’s digital riposte has shifted scrutiny from the coach to the club itself.

Bayern Munich await on Saturday, but the headlines belong to a feud that began in a podcast studio, paused at a press podium, and detonated on social media—proof that in the Bundesliga, even the shortest stories can sprawl across three acts.