Whe has gone wrong with young footballers in Frankfurt in recent years? Andreas Möller prefers not to answer this question. He tells the FAS: “I’m not talking about that. It’s far from me to judge the past. ”The 1990 world champion, who has been head of the Eintracht youth academy since the beginning of October 2019, has a firm eye on the future at Riederwald as a strategist and supervisor. And as the one who has to fill the restructuring with life, Möller has already shown a lot of doer qualities. He brought many new youth coaches with well-known names on board: the former professionals Thomas Broich and Jerome Polenz now train the U 15, former Eintracht goal scorer Alex Meier is now assistant coach of the U 16, and Ervin Skela performs the same function at the U 17 out.
The king’s solution was presented by Jürgen Kramny this week. The 48-year-old former Stuttgart Bundesliga coach, who also worked in the second division at Arminia Bielefeld, will determine the course of the U 19 in the next two years, which as the second club team behind the professionals without a U 23 will be the flagship of the Frankfurt youth division is in the junior Bundesliga. “When you see Jürgen Kramny’s coaching career, it is clear to me that he is the right choice,” says Möller. In Stuttgart and Mainz, the prominent New Years promoted the youth in various positions. During this time he trained top talents such as Antonio Rüdiger (now Chelsea) or Daniel Didavi (VfB Stuttgart).
Broad approval from Bobic
The cornerstones set by Möller within a few months for the new construction met with broad approval from Fredi Bobic. From Eintracht’s point of view, the foundation is finally in place that offers plenty of growth opportunities. The sports board recognizes a “clear handwriting”. The new trainers would stand for “quality”. For more than four years, Bobic has taken on the task of also breaking open the retracted structures on the Riederwald and providing fresh wind in the east of Frankfurt. It was a long process of upheaval, which, despite the changes that were made, involved some setbacks. Marco Pezzaiuoli, for example, is no longer a technical director and U-19 trainer at Riederwald.
But Bobic now seems to have found his talent master in Möller. The current line-up and orientation of the NLZ allow the sports director to conclude that this is “the future of Eintracht Frankfurt”. Möller, on the other hand, is grateful for “the very great support” from the soccer AG: “We certainly have more design options now.” Möller does not want to comment on the figures. The budget for the NLZ is said to have increased from around three million to a good four million euros in the past few years under the sponsor Bobic, for whom the best possible “networking” between the professional AG and the young people is a great need. “The budget is certainly based on a few other young talent centers in the Bundesliga. That was not always the case in the past, ”says Möller.
Something had to be done for the youngsters in Frankfurt because the Bundesliga team lacked strong moves from below. The development backlog has grown. Promising talents have only recently been found abroad by Eintracht. Marc Stendera was the last talent from our own ranks to date who more or less gained a foothold among the professionals in 2012. After moving to Hannover 96 in 2019, the midfielder is unemployed today. Only Sebastian Jung, who joined VfL Wolfsburg in 2014, became a regular player from the Eintracht talent scales. Today, young players from their own squad are primarily provided with professional contracts so that Eintracht meets the statutes of the German Football League with regard to the number of local players. Or they serve as sparring partners in training.
The Frankfurt team had no further use for their talents Sahverdi Cetin (19 years), Patrick Finger (19) and goalkeeper Max Hinke (19). You have to prevail elsewhere. But Möller says: “Youth work will become even more important in the coming years. It is very important to have a good youth concept in order to raise as many players as possible. ”It was his idea to create a“ good mix between theory and practice ”in the respective coaching positions with the U-teams. On the one hand with trainers who would have been working with young people for years and who accordingly had “a lot of professional competence”. And with newcomers to the coaching bench who, as former professionals, have a lot of experience and who could “perhaps give the decisive input again”. The Möller mix should do it: “This combination corresponds to my thinking. That is our way. I can identify with it one hundred percent, ”says the young manager.
When scouting talents, Möller believes, the Frankfurt “are very well positioned in all age groups”. Nevertheless, he would still like to have the Rhine-Main region more closely targeted. And across Europe? Who takes a look at the youngsters at international tournaments for Eintracht? “The higher it goes in the performance area, the more we benefit from the scouting department of the professional AG,” says Möller. The Eintracht boarding school offers space for 20 football talents. Some of them currently come from Sweden, Finland, Cyprus, Austria and the United States. 14 players are accommodated at the Riederwald. The other six, who are of legal age, live in shared apartments, and Eintracht has also created a care concept for them.
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