Decided for Türkiye in 2024
© Imago
DFB sports director Rudi Völler becomes wistful at the current achievements of Eintracht Frankfurt’s offensive talent Can Uzun. The German Football Association had long and intensively tried to see the 19-year-old native of Regensburg, before it finally decided on Turkey in the spring of 2024. He had previously played for his parents’ home country in the U17 and the U18.
“The fact that he is now making such a career as you can see on TV every week-I already have a little tear in mind when I’m honest. Because we hoped for exactly that. He is a wonderful kicker,” said Völler in the Germany premiere of his film “Rudi Völler-there is only one” in Frankfurt am Main. The documentary, which runs from Sky from October 3, saw 200 invited guests, including national coach Julian Nagelsmann and record national player Lothar Matthäus.
In its current form, Uzun – six goals and four assists in the first seven games – would also be a candidate for Nagelsmann. “We tried. It was a wonderful conversation with his father and his consultant – he really wobbled, but in the end you have to accept that, that’s also legitimate,” said Völler.
Change of association for can theoretically still possible
Uzun completed his first A-international match for Turkey in March 2024, and since then he has been on three overall brief missions. Since only one of them was in a competitive game (National League relegation 2025), he is under 21 years old and also has the German passport, an application for a change of association would still be possible in accordance with FIFA regulations. However, this has to be acted actively and Uzun should no longer play games for Turkey. Turkey will compete against Bulgaria and Georgia on October 11th and 14th. The fact that he then belongs to the squad and possibly collect the necessary missions to rule out a change is likely. A change is excluded from three competitive games.
Eintracht Frankfurt’s patience at Uzun pays off
After the start of the season, he will be one of the big winners in the Bundesliga market value update on October 14th. With regard to a possible change-the “picture” had recently reported about a Frankfurt pain limit at around 80 million euros-said Eintracht sports director Timmo Hardung in the “Sport1 Doppelpass”: “Our top goal is not to be rich, but to play football successfully. We need a team that is very likely to win the games. We sometimes need good footballers-and you sometimes have to develop.”
Uzun belongs in this ranks. He is “a very good example of what development constitutes and how long it sometimes takes in time and patience.” After his 11 million euro change from 1. FC Nürnberg, this had not immediately prevailed in the Frankfurt team as a regular – since he came from the 2nd Bundesliga, coach Dino Toppmöller and Co. had calculated this. The path is far from over, but now we see what he is able to do, ”said Hardung.