Hugo Ekitike is reborn at Eintracht Frankfurt, having lost his shine at PSG

Eintracht Frankfurt’s Hugo Ekitike is one of German football’s bright lights.

The French forward has three goals and two assists in all competitions so far, and has produced a rich seam of highlights. He teased Borussia Dortmund with shimmies and tricks in the Westfalenstadion. He played with compelling artistry against Hoffenheim, scoring one goal and creating another with startling grace.

The breadth of Ekitike’s influence is growing. His style and the scale of his talent is becoming harder to ignore.

But his is a strange story — and Ekitike, 22 and yet to be capped by France, finds himself in an unexpected situation. The wunderkind who lost his shine? Perhaps. He is an example of how quickly players who do not maintain their expected trajectory can lose their sheen. Ekitike feels like old news. Or did.

He first flashed across the sky after an outlandish 2021-22 season at Stade de Reims. The 10 goals he mustered in Ligue 1 were evidence of his impact, but it was his confidence on the ball that opened eyes and, unhelpfully, earned comparisons with a young Thierry Henry.

He appeared on Premier League radars in 2022 and was the subject of sustained interest from Newcastle United. He chose to join Paris Saint-Germain instead, initially on loan, ahead of a permanent deal that was worth €28million (£23.6m; $30.9m).

It did not go well.

In his first season, he was part of the supporting cast behind Neymar, Kylian Mbappe and Lionel Messi. Despite a reasonable return — 0.55 goals or assists per 90 — by the beginning of his second year his chances of first-team football had diminished. Messi and Neymar were gone, but PSG strengthened across their forward line. Ousmane Dembele, Randal Kolo Muani, Bradley Barcola, Kang-in Lee and Goncalo Ramos were all signed and, unsurprisingly, Ekitike was omitted from the Champions League squad in September 2023.

He would only play nine more Ligue 1 minutes before leaving for Germany and Frankfurt in January 2024, on a loan that became a €16.5m permanent deal.

Eintracht had a long-term interest. They had attempted to sign him the previous summer but had been unable to reach an agreement. They were in position to profit when he did become available.

“Hugo is a young player who’s already proven his big potential,” said Markus Krosche, Eintracht’s board member for sport, announcing the transfer — a loan with a permanent option — at the beginning of the year.

“We were impressed with him back in the summer and haven’t changed our minds. We’re happy that the transfer has been possible within context of our financial circumstances. And, obviously, we’ll give him the time he needs to get settled.”

Ekitike joined a club in an uncertain position. Only three of the players who started the 2022 Europa League final are still at the club — Kevin Trapp, Ansgar Knauff and Tuta — and head coach Oliver Glasner is long gone, having departed in 2023.

He was replaced by Dino Toppmoller, the son of Klaus Toppmoller who took Bayer Leverkusen to the 2002 Champions League final. More pertinently, Toppmoller Jnr was one of Julian Nagelsmann long-term assistants, both at RB Leipzig and Bayern Munich. Their football has plenty of shared principles: speed, pressure, a desire to dominate transitions.

In their first season under Toppmoller, Eintracht finished sixth albeit with inconsistent results. That was to be expected. Toppmoller was coaching for the first time in the Bundesliga. Among his most-used 11 players last season, seven were 25 or younger. By design. Eintracht are certainly among the best identifiers of talent in German football and have positioned themselves as a way station for players heading to the top of the game.

That is the context for Ekitike, who suits the club’s vision but has also proven a comfortable tactical fit.

Most often playing as a centre-forward in a 4-2-3-1 or 3-4-3, he has proven positionally flexible, happily rotating away from the front line, but also a perfect physical match for a team that wants to be direct and quick. Already this season, he has been measured as the third-quickest player in the Bundesliga, behind Heidenheim’s Sirlord Conteh and Bayer Leverkusen’s Jeremie Frimpong.

Eintracht also place emphasis on individual expression and Ekitike has been an asset with his tricks and invention, too. He is exuberant with the ball. There is real craft in how he beats defenders.

On the opening day of the season, he buckled the knees of Dortmund’s Waldemar Anton, the Germany international centre-back, with a roulette turn that even sent the Sky Deutschland televisions cameras the wrong way. He is some spectacle.

But there is plenty of substance beneath that style.

The below is an example taken from Eintracht’s 1-5 defeat to Bayer Leverkusen last season. In the first half, when the game was still in the balance, Ekitike received the ball on the touchline before slaloming between a trio of defenders and sending Omar Marmoush through on goal.

Marmoush missed the chance, but it was still a fine example of Ekitike’s timing, his range and how he is of influence in different ways.

His goal return is not overwhelming yet, but the variety of those he has scored is encouraging.

At the Allianz Arena last season, the week before that Leverkusen game, he beat Bayern’s Manuel Neuer with a curling shot from the edge of the area. In the last game before the current international break, he finished a one-on-one against Hoffenheim with a burst of acceleration and a sly feint around goalkeeper Oliver Baumann.

He scores with his feet, with his head, from chances he runs onto and some he creates for himself.

The Hoffenheim game produced his first of the season, but it also offered a pointer of the player he might become, as well as his growing awareness of the game around him. His cute assist for Hugo Larsson’s goal — to make it 2-0 — was evidence of great subtlety.

Marmoush drove towards the penalty box before playing a pass to Ekitike’s feet. The Frenchman, sensing Larsson’s third-man run from deep, played his own pass first time, putting the Swedish midfielder through on goal to score.

The screenshot does it little justice; the softness of touch was comparable to Cesc Fabregas’s famous assist for Andre Schurrle, for Chelsea against Burnley in 2014.

Aesthetically, there is still work to do. Like many young players, particularly with technical ability, Ekitike can be overambitious in possession and give the ball away. Even on commentary, he can be accused of being “frilly” — too flamboyant, not direct enough.

It is not an unfair charge, but he has plenty of traditional centre-forward attributes, too. At 6ft 3in (190.5cm), he is a formidable target in the box, clever in how he moves off the ball and positions himself between defenders.

A fine headed goal against Leverkusen in May was an example of the former. The example below, against RB Leipzig, attests to the latter; Ekitike outjumped Castello Lukeba and Lukas Klostermann, two physical centre-backs, to meet Ansgar Knauff’s cross at its highest point and score.

Much has changed in the last eight months. When Ekitike first arrived in Germany, it was clear Eintracht would have to be patient with a player who had barely played in six months. At the end of February 2024, he started his first game for the club, lasting 77 minutes against Wolfsburg before having to be withdrawn with a full-body cramp. Since then, his physical impact has become more pronounced and far more noticeable.

Where next? Eintracht are built to recruit potential, developing that talent and selling it at a premium — often in very short time periods. Kolo Muani joined the club on a free transfer in 2022 before being sold for €95million a year later. Most recently, they almost trebled their money on Willian Pacho, selling him to PSG this summer for €40m having paid €14m to sign him from Royal Antwerp in June 2023.

Most likely, Ekitike’s career will follow a similar path.

He has had his false start. Now, it seems like the journey is beginning again — for real this time.

(Top photo: Swen Pförtner/picture alliance via Getty Images)