At FC Utrecht since August
At the age of 29, Amin Younes is in the best footballer age, but he has already thought about the end of his career. “I love football, but all the trappings are sometimes just too much. I’ve thought about doing a complete cut a couple of times,” said the ex-national player in an interview with “sports1“. Specifically, the attacker meant the time around his departure from Eintracht Frankfurt in January. “The many hateful messages I received before and after my departure from Frankfurt hit me. It didn’t make me depressed, but that does something to a person – especially when those for whom you were the hero before suddenly despise you,” he emphasized.
Younes came to the Main metropolis on loan from SSC Naples in 2020, originally he was supposed to stay there until the end of the 2021/22 season. The fact that nothing came of it can be seen from the ongoing rumors of a change, which flared up for the first time in the summer of 2021 and led to the final break. At that time, Younes had been released for talks with a club before a deal with Al-Shabab in Saudi Arabia reportedly failed due to the will of the native of Düsseldorf. A little later, Younes was absent from the Hessians’ training, which the club said then looked for an “amicable solution to the current situation”. In the course of this, the professional was released before the loan was prematurely terminated in January. Younes joined Saudi Ettifaq FC on a free transfer shortly after his return to Napoli.
There is talk that Younes was promised a salary increase at Eintracht in 2021, but that did not happen. “At this point in my career at the latest, I realized that things can change quickly in football. In such situations there are two types of players: those who do not speak up and those who speak up. I’m the second type,” Younes said. He is a “guy with rough edges who doesn’t put up with everything”. With a little distance, he now said that in some situations he “certainly reacted too stubbornly because of his emotions”. In terms of sport, however, he could “reproach himself for nothing”. He scored four goals and three assists in 28 games with the SBU, celebrated his comeback in the DFB team and has meanwhile increased his market value to his personal best of 7.5 million euros.
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Younes had other transfer options besides Saudi Arabia
After leaving Eintracht, he had “a few other options” in Europe and other continents, including North America with Major League Soccer, in addition to Saudi Arabia. “I have always had a connection to the Arab world because my father comes from Lebanon. That was the sticking point in the end,” Younes said of his decision. “If money were more important to me, I would have taken this step before moving to Frankfurt. First and foremost, I just wanted to get away from the scene,” he said. Nine games (two goals) and almost six months later, Younes returned to Europe in August – to Dutch FC Utrecht. There he is active on loan until the end of the season, but at the moment there is only one bank place for him.
Two Bundesliga clubs, “that I didn’t expect,” as he put it, knocked on his door before he was transferred to Utrecht. “I have now made a conscious decision to move to a location near my hometown of Düsseldorf. And the Eredivisie is a great address. Crisp attacking football, a lot of great talent,” emphasized Younes. With Bas Dost (33), a former companion from days together in Frankfurt is also part of the squad. Whether Younes will play in Germany again, he will “we’ll see”. This is not part of his plans.
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