Eintracht will have to do without Jonathan Burkardt “until further notice”. This is becoming a huge problem, alternatives for the center forward are few and far between. A replacement list full of flops, false nines and a golden boy.
When worried foreboding turns into bitter certainty: On Thursday afternoon, Eintracht Frankfurt published the news that all fans of the Hessian Bundesliga club had feared. “Jonathan Burkardt suffered a muscle injury in his calf in yesterday’s game against Atalanta BC. The 25-year-old striker will be out until further notice.”
Just a few lines, and yet alarming. The Bild newspaper For example, the usual pointed question was: “Is THIS scene ruining Frankfurt’s season?” This scene was the one when striker Burkardt landed seemingly harmlessly on the ground after a header duel and yet a little later he vigorously kneaded his calf. Some hoped it would be a cramp, others feared an injury. The latter should be right. Burkardt is unlikely to be able to play again this calendar year.
The loss of the eleven-goal attacker (in 17 competitive games) not only caused an unsettled team in the Champions League game against Bergamo, which promptly turned into a System failure rushed and lost 0:3but confirmed a trend: the muscles don’t cooperate. After Rasmus Kristensen, Can Uzun, Hugo Larsson, Oscar Höjlund and Elias Baum, Burkardt is the sixth Eintracht professional to suffer a muscle injury this season. Certainly with completely different backgrounds, but all in all striking.
The oft-mentioned stress control often doesn’t seem to work. Burkardt will be missing for the time being; Hessen’s best attacker is not an option in the home game against VfL Wolfsburg on Sunday (5.30 p.m.). It’s just stupid: basically he is the only really suitable attacker for the Hessians. A look at the alternatives:
The Failed
The fact that Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller reacted to Burkardt’s injury by substituting Jean-Mattéo Bahoya is significant and logical. Significant because Bahoya is a wing attacker and not a center forward. At the same time it’s logical, because the one-on-one candidates Michy Batshuayi and Elye Wahi have disappointed far too often and actually don’t deserve any further chances.
They have long since been labeled as flops and are expected to leave the club in January. Both came into the game in the final phase against Bergamo, but both – like the rest of the team – were no longer able to convince. While Batshuayi could at least be a tactical fit against a presumably more defensive-minded opponent like Wolfsburg with his finishing skills, which he once demonstrated in the penalty area, Wahi is now even being booed by his own fans. His shocking record: 24 appearances, one goal – and that against fifth division club Engers.
The convalescent
How bad the Wahi balance sheet is is also made clear by another personality: Jessic Ngankam. Even the 25-year-old, who was once found to be clearly too light by the Frankfurt team and was sorted out into the second division, scored more often for the Hessians than the Frenchman. Ngankam has at least three Eintracht goals in 23 appearances. The attacker made it into the squad most recently in Cologne, but he is not a candidate for (longer) playing time. After breaking his tibia and fibula in the spring, Ngankam has only been back in full team training for almost a month. He is also considered a candidate for a change in winter.
The golden boy
Alexander Staff almost single-handedly led Eintracht to victory against Bergamo on Wednesday – not in Frankfurt’s Waldstadion, but in the Dreieicher Sportpark. Small backdrop for a big performance in the Youth League. The 17-year-old, recently awarded the Fritz Walter Medal in gold ahead of Bayern’s shooting star Lennart Karl, scored all three goals in Hessen’s 3-2 win. Overall, he now has five goals and two assists in four games in the youth premier class. Remarkable numbers. It would be more than surprising that staff, who usually plays in the youth Bundesliga, suddenly becomes the savior of the professionals. It could still be a smart idea to raise the talent that is in flow – at least temporarily – from the U19 to the Bundesliga team and let them train with you.
The false nine
The most likely variant is that Eintracht simply tries without a striker, at least without a trained one. While Mario Götze was once the most famous false nine in the Republic, this time Ansgar Knauff, actually a wing sprinter, could move into the center and let off steam there. Toppmöller had already relied on this option in individual cases in the past, around the beginning of the year against Dortmundwhen Omar Marmoush had just gone to donate to the island. The only thing: Back then, a certain Hugo Ekitiké was still playing at Knauff’s side – a different world of strikers.
Broadcast: hessenschau.de, Eintracht “until further notice” without Burkardt, 11/27/25, 4:36 p.m
