How Eintracht Frankfurt and Mario Götze could fit together

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It’s hard to believe, but Mario Götze is actually 30 years old. You can start thinking about the rest of your career, what still needs to be done on the football field and how things might continue afterwards. Im “Kicker meets DAZN”-Podcast Götze revealed some of his thoughts a few weeks ago.

“There is no medium or long-term plan, football is too difficult and dynamic for that. But my idea is to play in Europe as long as I can and have fun – and then maybe go to America again. That would be nice great,” said Götze at the time. The USA is a place of longing since he once went on a longer vacation there.

But before that, i.e. before moving to Major League Soccer, which many greats of football choose to end their careers, Götze wants to succeed in one of the top European leagues. For a long time it looked as if the 2014 world champion would follow his last coach and sponsor Roger Schmidt to Benfica. It was Schmidt who brought Götze out of his doldrums after moving from Dortmund to Eindhoven and now wanted to continue the small success story of the team at his new club in Lisbon.

But a return to the Bundesliga, to one of the up-and-coming clubs with the chance to play in the Champions League and also to move more clearly into the focus of German fans: That’s a lot bigger than a commitment to Benfica.

Also read: Bundesliga schedule 2022/23 published: This is the kick-off

Götze and Frankfurt “largely agree”

According to media reports, Mario Götze is said to be in front of the signature at Eintracht Frankfurt, “Sport1” reported in the night from Sunday to Monday that the player and the club “are largely in agreement”. “However, the signature is still pending. The Eintracht supervisory board will meet on Monday and should give the green light.” Götze was absent from training in Eindhoven on Monday, fueling speculation.

And indeed it would be a coup if Eintracht should bring the prodigal son back to the Bundesliga – for the league itself, for Götze and of course for Frankfurt, where the euphoria after winning the Europa League and entering the premier class for the first time anyway seems limitless.

But would that be a reasonable solution for all parties? Does Götze fit into Frankfurt and how could the player fit into Oliver Glasner’s ideas of Eintracht football?

Challenges for Eintracht Frankfurt: Champions League and strong opponents

A lot will change for Frankfurt in the coming season: not only the triple burden of participating in the Champions League, including the emotional upheavals for everyone involved on these matchdays and thus also the holidays, will have an effect on the compulsory tasks in the Bundesliga. The opponents should also meet Eintracht a little differently than in the past season.

Frankfurt will have to find a better balance between the freestyle in European competition and the obligation in the league. From a certain point in the second half of last season, everything in Frankfurt was subordinated to the big goal in the Europa League, so the result was 15th place in the second half of the table, with only three wins from 17 games.

As a Champions League participant, Eintracht is likely to be the favorite in most games of the new season and will face correspondingly reactive and perhaps defensive opponents. On teams that withdraw far and narrow the spaces in front of their own goal. With Jens Petter Hauge and Daichi Kamada, Frankfurt already has two extremely strong players in its ranks in tight spaces. But someone like Götze is very rare for this very special task in Europe.

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Mario Götze could become important for Eintracht Frankfurt

In his habitat, Götze still belongs at least to the international top class, as a master at solving complex game situations even under high time and opponent pressure, there are only a few at Götze’s level. This piece of the puzzle could become extremely important for Eintracht with their mixture of possession and switching football, technique and speed. The ball possession percentage is likely to increase a bit in the future.

It also fits that the Frankfurters are apparently after the Argentinian Nicolás Castro – an attacking midfielder with a lot of creativity and strategic skill. The director of Newell’s Old Boys would be a promise for the future at just 21 and still relatively inexperienced.

Also read: Lewandowski successor at Bayern: These ex-Frankfurters could come

Frankfurt can devote itself to the detailed work

Götze, on the other hand, after 13 years in professional football and more than 60 games in the premier class alone, would bring a fair amount of experience to the Champions League novice Frankfurt. And because the player in Eindhoven hardly had to struggle with the injuries that regularly occurred before, Götze could immediately become an elementary building block in Frankfurt, who can have an influence on and off the pitch.

With the victory in the Europa League and the upcoming income from the premier class, Frankfurt has generated around 60 million euros in additional financial leeway. Together with the incentive for the players in the current squad to play in the premier class with Frankfurt, the reassuring idea remains: apart from one or maybe two players – who absolutely want to leave – Eintracht only has to change the squad a little and can instead fill in the small gaps.

Frankfurt doesn’t have to moderate an upheaval, but make smart decisions in the detailed work. A transfer from Mario Götze, which is also a bargain at a transfer fee of four million euros, could be one of these solutions. Even if Götze should immediately rise to become one of the top earners…

Sources used:

• Dazn.com: Mario Götze exclusively in the KMD podcast: “Roger Schmitt is even more extreme than Pep”. 05/02/22
• twitter.com: Christopher Michel (@CMofficial). Tweet from 06/19/22