Eintracht Frankfurt Transfers: From herd of buffalo to Europa League victory

Starting eleven cost only 45 million

Looking ahead to Eintracht Frankfurt’s Europa League final win against Rangers in a few years’ time, September 2, 2019 could be described as something of a pivotal moment. That’s probably a bit of an exaggeration, because the key moment would be the whole transfer summer of this year. After all, he is representative of the outstanding transfer business in Hesse. With Ante Rebic, the last player of the so-called “buffalo herd” left on September 2nd.

This consisted of the offensive quartet Rebic, Luka Jović, Sébastien Haller and Kevin-Prince Boateng. The latter left Eintracht in 2018 after winning the DFB Cup. The other three shot the “Adler” close to winning the Europa League for the first time in the 2018/19 season. After a furious knockout phase, in which the Frankfurt supporters secured a place in the hearts of fans all over the world with spectacular choreographies, it was only a penalty shoot-out in the semifinals against eventual winners FC Chelsea that ended.

As a result, Jović, Haller and Rebic felt they had a higher calling and made changes. In the Premier League, to Real Madrid, to AC Milan. Sporty, no question, an unprecedented bloodletting. Many Eintracht fans in the TM community wondered how such good players could ever be replaced. Perhaps the successes that this team had brought to the troubled fan soul were enough for the time being? After all, the club was well paid for this disadvantage: the sales of these three players alone brought 119 million euros in transfers. Striker André Silva, who quickly became the new crowd favourite, also came in exchange for Rebic.

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For his part, Silva moved back to Leipzig two years later, but with his performances the Portuguese played a large part in the fact that Eintracht didn’t really go down in sporting terms. Even beyond the goalscorer, the transfers made with this money show the strong work of the sporting leadership until 2021, Fredi Bobic and Bruno Hübner as well as the successor of the former, Markus Krösche, and above all the former chief scout and current director of professional football Ben Manga.

“Ben has a big part in the current success of Concord and development over the past few years,” Bobic said on the day Manga was promoted. “His sense of talent and his powers of observation are very pronounced and will develop even better in the new structure.” Manga, Bobic and Hübner had a common understanding of what players fit into Eintracht. Talents that other clubs didn’t have on the list. And players who may have been branded as failures elsewhere. were considered difficult. Ultimately, however, with huge leaps in development, Eintracht brought exactly where it is today: to the first European Cup victory since 1980.

The starting XI against Rangers cost less than 45 million euros in total – less than the sale of Hallers alone. And less than quarter-final opponents FC Barcelona only put on the table for winter access Ferran Torres. Filip Kostic, for example, was such a transfer with an eye. The winger was relegated with Stuttgart and HSV and could never really meet the high expectations. In 2019, Eintracht bought the previously loaned Serbs for 6 million euros, since then Kostic has contributed 33 goals and 63 assists in 170 competitive games. This Europa League season alone has nine scorer points, and he also prepared the goal for Rafael Borré, who signed on a free transfer last summer.

In addition to Kostic, three other players who started against Rangers, Djibril Sow, Sebastian Rode and Kevin Trapp, signed long-term SBU deals in the summer when the herd of buffalo moved on. Together they cost 27 million euros. In the same year, Martin Hinteregger also switched to Eintracht on a permanent loan, another player whose mentality symbolizes the assembled team. With foresight, Daichi Kamada (2017/18), Evan Ndicka and Tuta (both 2018/19) had already switched to Frankfurt in previous years. Together they cost less than 10 million euros.

In principle, the Hessians have been generating transfer profits since the sale of the “Buffalo herd” – it looks like that for the coming season as well. The four players signed so far are all free transfers, while Dominik Kohr, Steven Zuber and Rodrigo Zalazar, who are currently on loan, have taken in €6.1m. In view of their contract situation, Ndicka, Kostic or Kamada are also considered candidates for sale – unless they extend them. One can be sure: If there are transfers, inexpensive alternatives will not be far away – on the way to the next title or at least to continue to inspire the fans as in previous years.

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