A missed appointment. Last summer, Hugo Ekitike was on the verge of signing for Eintracht Frankfurt. Pushed towards the exit at Paris Saint-Germain, the native of Reims was approached by the German team who wanted to make him the successor to Randal Kolo Muani, recruited precisely by Paris. But ultimately, this file was unsuccessful and the 21-year-old remained in the capital where he no longer played a single match. He has only been able to participate in Luis Enrique’s training sessions in recent months. But after this complicated period, he found his smile again this winter since he joined Frankfurt.
Ekitike wants to move forward
Loaned with a purchase option (easily attainable), Ekitike has made a new start in Germany. Presented to the press yesterday afternoon, he confided: “I want to have fun again and have fun on the pitch (…) I want to get into the rhythm, learn from my colleagues and adapt to the intensity of the German championship. It’s the coach who will decide whether I start or not. I try to prepare as best as I can and be there when the team needs me (…) I see myself as a striker who plays the game and at the same time looks for depth and creates links between his teammates. I move a lot in spaces, I like to dribble and provide assists as well as goals.
Advised by RKM and Kylian Mbappé, he discussed his decision to sign for Frankfurt. “Coming here is the right choice. The most important thing is to be able to express myself and show everything I learned in Paris over a year and a half.” His new club was able to see him in action for 14 minutes against FC Cologne on February 3 (2-0 victory). But everyone will have to be patient with the former Stade Reims player. Bild explains that Eintracht coach Dino Toppmöller (43) is very attentive to the Ekitike case. The German media explains that the player carried out physical tests on Tuesday morning. And the results were very clear.
He’s not physically close
Indeed, the first feedback on the player’s physical form is not positive. The first training sessions in Frankfurt also showed that he had muscular problems. Bild specifies that to avoid injury, he cannot play much at the moment, having not played a single minute of play since his last appearance against FC Lorient in Ligue 1. That day, he had played 9 minutes. It was almost 6 months ago. Thus, Ekitike will not be a candidate to be in the starting lineup on Saturday against Bochum, he who can only last 15 minutes on the field according to echoes from across the Rhine.
But Frankfurt more or less expected this and did not overwhelm the player. Bild explains that Ekitike tried to stay in shape in Paris, where he sometimes couldn’t use the club’s weight room as he wanted. Eintracht therefore wants to take it easy with its winter recruit and gradually give him more playing time, depending on the evolution of his physical form. We will therefore have to wait a little longer before seeing Hugo Ekitike play a series of matches at the highest level, far from Paris.
