“Kevin Trapp! Kevin Trapp!” | OneFootball

Kevin Trapp spent a decade in goal for Eintracht Frankfurt, making 383 appearances in the process. We bid farewell to a history-making No. 1 with ten stories from ten years.

Six years ago, Kevin Trapp took an EintrachtTV team on an incredibly personal journey, taking in Frankfurt and Paris – the two cities where he enjoyed his greatest and most regular successes.

“Frankfurt – Paris, Paris – Frankfurt… that reflects my career path in a way,” the keeper said. “The train takes us right by the places where I wrote chapters of my history. Saarbrücken in Saarland, where I come from. Kaiserslautern, where I spent a lot of my youth. Frankfurt, where I spent three years before moving to Paris. Things just kept getting bigger and bigger.”

We take a look back at some of the milestones in Kevin’s career.

2012: 19-minute debut before establishing himself

The first chapter in Frankfurt began in an unforgettable way and would lead to an unqualified success. No one would have thought that 13 years ago, however, when on 19 August 2012, Eintracht lost their first-round DFB Cup tie 3-0 to Erzgebirge Aue, after seeing their new No.1 given a red card after 19 minutes. Trapp nevertheless managed to fill the gloves left by Oka Nikolov, as the Eagles belied their status as a newly promoted team to finish sixth in the Bundesliga in 2013 and qualify for the UEFA Europa League.

2013: First international steps

This therefore gave Trapp his first experience of European competitions, as Eintracht Frankfurt put on a show across the continent, from Bordeaux to Porto. On the domestic front, the team could only manage 13th in the Bundesliga, but they did reach the quarter-finals of the DFB Cup.

2014: New captain

New coach, new role – with Pirmin Schwegler moving to Hoffenheim, Thomas Schaaf named 23-year-old Trapp as the new captain of Eintracht Frankfurt.

2015 – 2018: Milestones, a fond farewell and international duty

On 8 February 2015, Trapp made it a century of Bundesliga appearances, the first 22 of those having come in a Kaiserslautern jersey. The rising star moved to PSG that summer, where he would go on to pick up plenty of silverware. In the November of that year, he was also called up to the Germany squad for the first time. He made his debut between the sticks for his country on 6 June 2017 in Brøndby against Denmark, and was included in the squad for the 2018 World Cup.

2018: Welcome return

When Eintracht Frankfurt won the DFB Cup in 2018 – their first trophy in 30 years – ‘Trappo’ was still in Paris but made sure that he didn’t miss out on the final in Berlin, as he told the crowd in front of the Frankfurt city hall balcony four years later. “When you won the DFB Cup in 2018, I was watching it live on my phone during one of my own matches, because it was just the greatest thing to see you bring a trophy home.” On deadline day in 2018, the Eagles picked Trapp up on loan and brought him back to the banks of the Main.

2019: European foreshadowing and a permanent deal

The triumph of 2022 was getting nearer, literally and figuratively. Again Eintracht took Europe by storm, making it through to the semi-finals of the Europa League before going down to Chelsea in a dramatic penalty shoot-out. Trapp called it “karma” looking back, when Eintracht finally came out on top three years later. And perhaps it was also karma that the Eagles managed to get Trapp back for good on a permanent deal that August.

2020: Comeback and cup run

Trapp struggled for months with a shoulder injury, but showed his love of knockout football once again as Eintracht went all the way to the final four of the DFB Cup, only to come up short against Bayern.   2021: Match-winner in Munich

Eintracht got their own back the following season when they won 2-1 at the Allianz Arena in October, recording their first league victory of the campaign and inflicting a first loss on Bayern in the process. Man of the match that day was without a doubt Trapp, who saved 10 of 11 shots on target and led his side to their first away win against the Bavarians in 21 years.

2022: Cheat sheet, commitment and Yashin Trophy nomination

On 18 May 2022, at the Estadio Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán in Seville, Trapp’s crowning moment came just before midnight. In the 118th minute, he pulled off the save of the century to deny Ryan Kent, and then stopped Rangers’ final spot-kick from Aaron Ramsey in the shootout. And was it all down to the Jens Lehmann-style cheat sheet that Trapp had stuck to his drink bottle? “It didn’t help me for the first two, so I did the rest on gut feeling,” he said after the match.

Gut feeling was also a theme three months later, when Manchester United made no secret of their admiration of the Europa League-winning shot-stopper. Trapp was left with a tough call to make. “I’ve had some unforgettable experiences here with Eintracht and we’ve made history together,” he told the fans. “We’ve had a tough start to the season, but I have every confidence in us!” And with that, he penned an extension to his contract through to 2026. In October, Trapp was nominated for the Yashin Trophy, which recognises the best goalkeeper in the world, and finished sixth in the voting.

2023: Goalkeeper appearance record

On 27 May, Trapp wrote his name in the Eintracht annals once again, playing his 235th Bundesliga game in an Eagles jersey, putting him ahead of Dr. Peter Kunter, Uli Stein and Oka Nikolov as the goalkeeper with the most top-flight appearances for the club.

2024: Captain again

When Sebastian Rode called time on his career after the 2023/24 season, Dino Toppmöller gave the captain’s armband to Trapp, who had been vice-captain during that campaign.

2025: 61st clean sheet

The 2024/25 season, in which Trapp made three appearances in the DFB Cup, seven in the UEFA Europa League and only 26 out of 34 in the Bundesliga due to injury, proved to be his last. The Eagles qualified for the UEFA Champions League via their league position for the first time. And in his tenth season in the heart of Europe, Trapp kept seven Bundesliga clean sheets to take his total to 61, putting him level with the aforementioned Kunter. And as it turns out, the two will continue to share that honour.

“I’ve had some wonderful times here in the past. Frankfurt gave me the opportunity to play in the Bundesliga. I came to love not just the club, but also the city and the people. I’ve still got a lot of friends here – I’ve never lost contact and that means so much to me.” Trapp said those words back in 2019, and nothing has changed since then. After all his experiences and achievements, and with 383 appearances in total, Trapp may be moving on but his name will never be forgotten. As the crowd have sung many a time over the past decade: “Kevin Trapp! Kevin Trapp!