Even if the Frankfurt sports director Markus Krösche is not currently looking for a football coach for day-to-day business, he meets with football teachers from time to time when the opportunity arises and he has not yet met them in person.
During the conversation, Krösche wants to get an impression of them. The 45-year-old, who deals openly with the topic, wants to be prepared in the event that he has to look for a new coach. This situation has now arisen in Frankfurt.
On Sunday, Eintracht released coach Dino Toppmöller, whose contract runs until July 1, 2028. Toppmöller’s team was only able to win one of the last nine competitive games. They have conceded three goals in each of the last three games. There are 39 in 18 first division games. After the happy 3:3 on Friday in Bremen, Krösche avoided making a commitment to the 45-year-old Toppmöller.
“So far our claim has only been inadequately met”
“We greatly appreciate Dino Toppmöller’s technical expertise, his professionalism, his meticulous way of working and his humane approach to the team,” Krösche was quoted as saying in a club statement on Sunday. “Nevertheless, after an intensive internal assessment, we in the sporting leadership and collectively on the board have come to the conclusion that we need a new sporting impulse due to the declining development in the last few weeks.” And further: “So far this season we have not lived up to our claim that Eintracht Frankfurt stands for dynamic, aggressive and compact football.”
The Frankfurters held internal discussions on Saturday. The main committee with president and supervisory board chairman Mathias Beck was involved. Nothing was initially known about a decision. Clarity prevailed a day later.
As the successor to Oliver Glasner, Toppmöller started work in Frankfurt in July 2023. In 121 competitive games with the team he recorded 1.51 points per game. Last season, Eintracht managed to qualify for the Champions League via the league for the first time. “Regardless of the currently unsatisfactory situation, which is undoubtedly there, I am proud of what we have achieved together over the past two and a half years,” Toppmöller is quoted as saying in the club’s statement. “I would have loved to continue working with this team and continue to face the challenges that are there. But I accept the decision.”
Schmitt and Meier take over first
This Wednesday (6.45 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker/DAZN) in the important Champions League match in Baku against Qarabag Agdam, U21 coach Dennis Schmitt and U19 coach Alex Meier will take over the care of the professional team. The football teacher Schmitt will “take the lead role,” said Eintracht. The work of the team “gives us the time we need to fill the coaching position permanently,” said Krösche.
Marco Rose is one of the most promising successor candidates. He won the DFB Cup with RB Leipzig in 2023, and then there was the DFL Supercup. In March 2025, the Saxons separated from the now 49-year-old. “We have a lot to thank Marco for. We won a title. He got us through the group phase of the Champions League in an almost hopeless situation,” said RB supervisory board chairman Oliver Mintzlaff.
Rose started his work in September 2022 when Leipzig were tenth in the Bundesliga. “If you have the feeling that the players are not getting better, that we are not bringing a clear playing philosophy to the pitch, then you have to make a decision like that,” said Mintzlaff about the end of the collaboration with Rose. The contract of the former Mainz first division professional, whose coaching positions also include Salzburg, Gladbach and Dortmund, runs until July 1, 2026. Rose had already said last autumn that he “absolutely wanted to go back to the bench” and that he was “very open” in many directions. “It just has to be right,” he said.
Roger Schmidt probably knows Krösche best of all the coaching candidates. In Paderborn, Krösche was captain of the team that Schmidt coached. Later, from mid-2015 to March 2017, he acted as his assistant on the coaching bench in Leverkusen. During this time, Krösche considered Schmidt to be “absolutely authentic, he never pretended. And that’s a good thing, because that’s how he became the coach he is today. He is a very emotional person who is extremely perfectionist and ambitious. In every respect,” Krösche said at the time.
A big name also joins the rumors
After his work in the Rhineland, Schmidt won cups in China with Beijing Guoan and in the Netherlands with Eindhoven. With Benfica Lisbon he won the championship and the Supercup between 2022 and 2024. Today, the 58-year-old is under contract in Japan as a “Global Football Advisor” for the J.League until June of this year.
The name Matthias Jaissle also came up over the weekend when it came to possible Toppmöller heirs at Eintracht. He has been working for Al-Ahli in Saudi Arabia for almost two and a half years. The 37-year-old native of Swabia was previously the coach of RB Salzburg until 2023. The former Hoffenheim professional won the Asian Champions League with Al-Ahli – where he has a contract until mid-2027.
A big name was added to the rumors about a coach’s dismissal on the Main at the weekend: Xabi Alonso. Real Madrid recently released the Spaniard. The 44-year-old Alonso became German champion with Bayer Leverkusen in 2024.
The separation from Toppmöller is no surprise. In Bremen, Krösche did not contradict speculation that he could be replaced. Instead, he made clear criticisms of the team’s demeanor and work effort. He spoke of recurring mistakes, of performances that did not meet the club’s standards and of the fact that they could not continue in this form: “We have to address the issues and see that we never show such performances again.”
The negative development can be quantified. No Bundesliga team has conceded more goals than Eintracht, whose goal difference is 38:39 – an interim balance after 18 match days that suggests a club with relegation problems rather than international goals. The Frankfurt team now has 32 professionals under contract, the squad has been expanded in recent weeks with a handful of new additions for around 20 million euros and, with a market value of almost 400 million euros, represents the most valuable squad in the club’s history.
But the beginning of the year didn’t bring any stabilization either: three goals each were scored against Dortmund, Stuttgart and Werder, which were only enough for two points. Toppmöller called the number of points scored and the number of goals conceded a “very tiresome topic”. And he added self-critically: “Of course I am primarily responsible for this.” As of Sunday, 12:43 p.m., Eintracht has officially released him. Toppmöller said that he “went to Eintracht every day with great passion and joy.” He described it as “a shame that we can’t continue together.” He wished Eintracht both “quieter” and “successful” times – and added: “It was an honor.”
