Hertha’s top talent
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Hertha homegrown Kennet Eichhorn is probably the most sought-after German footballer in the coming summer transfer period and as a 16-year-old second division talent. According to “Sky” information, Liverpool FC is now part of the long list of domestic and foreign clubs that want to sign the midfielder. Accordingly, “concrete discussions” have already taken place between the parties.
Eichhorn is said to have a release clause of between 10 million and 12 million euros, which will allow him to make a transfer this summer. There seems to be no question that the U17 national player is moving – until we know the destination, there will probably be a lot of discussions to convince the talent to join his own club.
In the TM rumor mill, the defensive midfielder is linked to Liverpool, FC Bayern, Borussia Dortmund, VfB Stuttgart, RB Leipzig and Bayer Leverkusen. Manchester City from the Premier League is also said to be interested in the youngest player in Hertha history. For both the Citizens and the Reds, a direct transfer with immediate registration for the professional squad would be difficult to implement, which is why there have already been simulation games according to which Man City would sign him and loan him out to Bayer 04 until he was 18.
Background: A direct transfer of a 16-year-old talent from Germany to a Premier League club would currently not be permitted. Since Brexit, England is no longer considered an EU country, so the previous exception for youth transfers within the EU no longer applies. An international transfer would therefore usually only be possible once you turn 18.
So far, only six talents up to the age of 16 have been paid a transfer fee of 10 million euros or more. The first was Theo Walcott, whom Arsenal signed from Southampton FC in 2005 for 10.5 million euros. AS Monaco failed twice in its attempt to bring in the next potential top striker with the transfers of Pietro Pellegri and Willem Geubbels, for which around 20 million euros were due each. For Karim Adeyemi, RB Salzburg paid 10.1 million euros to SpVgg Unterhaching, including the resale share, and made a hefty profit on the transfer to BVB. FC Barcelona showed the right instinct for Pedri – now the most valuable midfielder in the world. The 23 million euros that went to UD Las Palmas from 2019 were money well invested.
Eichhorn is likely to inherit Adeyemi this summer as the most expensive German talent up to the age of 16. Transfers in the six- and seven-figure range were transferred from FC Bayern to Hansa Rostock for Toni Kroos in 2006 or from Munich to Hertha for Noel Aseko in the summer of 2022.
