Eintracht Frankfurt: How did the club that won everything sink?

Eintracht Frankfurt: how they won hundreds of millions and then sank October 16, 2026Something is happening at Eintracht Frankfurt and, apparently, it is not good. It is not just about the slide suffered at the Leipzig stadium, where the home team crushed the "eagles" of the financial metropolis of Germany with a score of 6-0. A eloquent sign of what is happening at the club was the transfer of fullback Nathaniel Brown to Bayern Munich. It was a relatively surprising operation and, moreover, for an amount very favorable to the buying club, taking into account the potential of the newly selected German: 50 million euros. The signing was finalized in the heat of the football summer, amid the international frenzy for the 2026 World Cup. Eintracht let one of its pillars go like that, with the consequent sporting loss. In any case, things should not be so bad. The team still has good players, and it has an experienced coach in Adi Hütter as a successor to Albert Riera. But, as the recent results show, the underlying problem does not seem to be in the current squad, nor on the bench. In fact, the current crisis erupted after Riera's departure, whose role in the team's scarce sporting performance seems more anecdotal. Spectacular sales, discreet income The first indications point more to a structural failure. The club, which in the early management of Dino Topmöller played the most attractive football in the Bundesliga, has been gradually declining in terms of sporting performance. Just as it has promoted young players, some of whom achieved international projection, it has also gotten rid of them. The list is long: Omar Marmoush, Willian Pacho, Randal Kolo Muani, Arthur Theate, Rasmus Kristensen, Tuta, Hugo Larsson, Hugo Ekitiké, and Jean-Matheo Bahoya, among others. In just the last transfer window, Eintracht made a positive balance of 45 million euros, which are added to the many millions from the juicy sales of Pacho, Ekitiké, and Marmoush to top clubs like Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool FC, and Manchester City. Experts calculate that, through these and other transfers, the "eagles" have brought in more than 300 million euros. Their coffers should be full, but the "auction" of last summer, including the sale of Brown, is an indication of something very different. The team seems increasingly immersed in a crisis for which there is no bottom. Experts like the author Johannes Mittermeier attribute this paradox to the "eternal principle of top-level sport: the more you win, the more you spend." Added to the high salary costs, this is a surprising fact. The spectacular figures from player sales are not what the German team actually receives. Payments are distributed in annual installments, and a large network of intermediaries also keeps their share of the pie, writes the expert in the magazine Focus. To top it all off, Eintracht lost the income from competing internationally by finishing in eighth place in the previous tournament. The protagonists are also responsible All of the above does not exempt the current players from responsibility for the recent poor results. Central defender Robin Koch, for example, has had a performance since last year that took him out of the German national team and left him out of the World Cup. Hütter, relentless, replaced him at halftime of the match against Leipzig. Forward Can Uzun, one of the great hopes of the "eagles," has not had the expected development and is gradually being displaced by the German international Younes Ebnoutalib. Another German international, Jonny Burkardt, has seen his consistency affected by injuries. So, Eintracht Frankfurt, rather than soaring high, seems to be stagnant in its own nest of calamities. Getting out of the crisis will take as much time and perhaps as many millions as those the club has seen pass without building a project around it. Don't let the algorithm hide the news. If you trust this site for reliable information, please take a moment to select us as your preferred source on Google: click here and check the box or press the DW.com button to always see our verified news according to your preferences.