The leaders and technical staff of PSG could do a double blow by going to the “formidable tool” of Décines this Thursday. Namely to closely observe their next opponent in Ligue 1, this OL remaining in eight games without defeat, and to speak with its main friendly club in Europe, Eintracht Frankfurt. Over the past six years, no less than five players have moved from one camp to another. If the cases of Kevin Trapp (€7 million) and Eric-Junior Dina-Ebimbe (€6.5 million), still at Eintracht, were not huge economic issues, it was quite the opposite for the three most recent transfers.
Less than two years after investing more than 30 million euros in Hugo Ekitike, Paris Saint-Germain sold off its Espoirs international to Frankfurt in February 2023 for a package of 20 million euros (paid loan plus option of purchase lifted). Almost in parallel with this transfer, Randal Kolo Muani, Bundesliga revelation with Frankfurt, joined Paris at the end of the 2023 summer transfer window for the staggering sum of 90 million euros.
“We now have the best player plus €70 million”
Enough to almost pass off the transfer in August of Ecuadorian defender Willian Pacho (€45 million, bonus included), after a single successful season in Frankfurt again, for an anonymous operation. It’s simple: in two consecutive summers, Eintracht Frankfurt has posted a colossal positive balance of 115 million euros compared to PSG… while perhaps having inherited the most talented of the three players thanks to his move on the offensive level.
“The exchange of Ekitike for Kolo Muani is of course celebrated here,” smiles the German X account Inside Eintracht, which has 17,000 subscribers. We now have the best player plus 70 million euros net, it’s unexpected. » This season’s statistics are striking, since Hugo Ekitike has established himself as an indisputable starter in Germany and has combined 11 goals and 5 assists in 20 matches, in all competitions.
Record revenues of 390 million euros in 2024
At the same time, Randal Kolo Muani is completely sidelined by Luis Enrique, with 2 goals in 14 games, and he only finds pleasure during each international break with Didier Deschamps. “Ekitike is a real artist, very fast and very technical, who forms with the Egyptian Omar Marmoush (17 goals and 11 assists this season!) one of the best offensive duos in Europe,” confirms journalist Julian Franzke, who follows Eintracht Frankfurt for Kicker. The club’s leaders estimate that his value is already around 60 million euros with what he shows there. But no one in Frankfurt is trying to compare him to Kolo Muani. »
No one, except a few reluctant supporters who did not fail to tease Luis Campos and Nasser Al-Khelaïfi about their squad composition. Caner (24 years old) is one of them: “The transfer of Kolo Muani to Paris never made the slightest sense in my eyes. It’s not a real center forward like Lewandowski, Kane or Haaland but a false 9. Ultimately, Ekitike would have suited PSG more, while trying to associate Kolo Muani with Mbappé last season was stupid. When we think about this extremely overpaid operation, as Frankfurt fans, we still can’t believe it.”
This is why the faithful of Eintracht, winner of the Europa League in 2022, praise the work of their general director Markus Krösche, who is multiplying his successes in the transfer window. The former sporting director of RB Leipzig has thus greatly contributed to record revenues for Frankfurt of 390 million euros in 2023-2024, including €143 million in player sales. That’s an increase… of 806% compared to the previous season, with Parisian generosity as an underlying theme.
Frankfurt has often hatched “comet scorers”
Julian Franzke qualifies this idea of the WTF transfer of the century which is gaining ground in both camps: “Even if the leaders of Frankfurt were satisfied with the outcome of the transfer of Kolo Muani at such a price, the amount seemed much less insane after his season at 23 goals at Eintracht and its 2022 World Cup than today.”
But recent history shows that the main attackers of Eintracht, Luka Jovic (absolute flop at Real Madrid), Sébastien Haller (struggling at West Ham) and André Silva (disappointing at RB Leipzig) in the lead, have not immediately confirmed their miracle season in Frankfurt.
“Kolo Muani is the embodiment of the mercenary”
Even the loss of Willian Pacho is not that bad, according to German fans. “Pacho had a good season with us, but we all understood that at €45 million, we had to let him go,” underlines the Inside Eintracht account. And with Arthur Theate [prêté par Rennes]we even got a better player. He can play in central defense and as a left back, he has very good recovery skills and he is already one of the leaders of the team. »
Second in the Bundesliga, six points behind Bayern Munich, third and undefeated in the Europa League before their trip to Lyon this Thursday (9 p.m.), Eintracht is therefore doing well both sportingly and economically. And we advise you not to pronounce the name of Randal Kolo Muani too much in front of his fans.
« In 2023, he has long claimed to want to stay in Frankfurt if Eintracht and PSG cannot reach an agreement. Then he abruptly skipped training and threatened to go on strike. He was an unknown when he arrived with us, he grew up at Eintracht then he became Judas. Everything he did for us is now forgotten. He is the embodiment of the mercenary. »
A mercenary who arrived free from Nantes a year earlier, and who despite everything brought a record tumble to his ephemeral springboard club, thanks to PSG. To the point of validating for good the “friendly club” label in Frankfurt, even if Nasser Al-Khelaïfi and Qatar were targeted twice this fall by virulent banners in the stands of the Allianz Arena in Munich?
Marmoush in series announced for the 2025 transfer window
“There have been several transfers between the two clubs, with a clear advantage for us, but that is not why Frankfurt supporters will appreciate PSG,” says Inside Eintracht. We see Paris as an investors’ project, while in Germany, we want our clubs to be controlled by their members via the 50 + 1 rule.”
Our file on PSG
While aiming even higher for the 2025 transfer window about the man who draws the victorious free kicks in an almost anachronistic manner? If the first rumors instead send Omar Marmoush to Liverpool and Manchester United, the British tabloid The Mirror announced on December 1 an interest from PSG. We might as well tell you that in the next eight months, the leaders of Frankfurt will dream of a nine-figure offer from their favorite club.
