Eintracht Frankfurt have joined AS Saint-Etienne’s Niels Nkounkou at left-back on Deadline Day.
what after sport.de/RTL information already indicated on Friday afternoon is now fixed: Bundesliga club Eintracht Frankfurt signed a new left-back on Deadline Day.
After passing the medical check, Niels Nkounkou signed a five-year contract with the Hessians until the summer of 2028. In the future he will compete with Philipp Max for a regular place.
“We had Niels Nkounkou in our sights for the entire second half of last season and are happy that we managed to win him over for Eintracht and our path,” said sporting director Timmo Hardung. Nkounkou is “a highly talented player who impresses with his dynamism, assertiveness and determination.” The 22-year-old will “enrich” Eintracht’s game.
He only returned from a loan to Everton in the spring and then showed convincing performances. The Frenchman has drawn attention to himself, especially in the past six months. He scored six goals and eight assists in 21 games in France’s second division side AS Saint-Etienne.
After completing his training in Marseille, Nkounkou gained some experience abroad. In addition to Premier League club Everton, he also played for Belgian first division club Standard Liège and Cardiff City in England’s second division.
For weeks, the Frenchman has also been associated with a move to SGE. Nkounkou himself recently made no secret of wanting to leave. “If I have to tell them every day that I want to leave, I will do that. I won’t get tired. Keeping a player against his will is not the right solution in my opinion,” he told French newspaper L ‘Team’.
Eintracht Frankfurt will probably pay 7.5 million euros
The problem so far has been the fee. For a long time, Eintracht Frankfurt officials haggled with the French second division club.
Five to six million euros were recently discussed according to “Bild”. Now it says: The transfer fee should have been around 7.5 million euros.
Nkounkou has featured in just one Ligue 2 game this season. He was on the field for over 90 minutes in a 2-1 win over Quevilly Rouen, AS’s only league win to date. However, not as a left-back, but in the left midfield.