He was armed with his biggest smile when the announcement was released to the public around half past midnight. There was enough. Randal Kolo Muani has gone through all the emotions over the past 24 hours. But the striker, and PSG, finally prevailed. For a transfer fee of €90 million, he joined the capital club, de facto folding Eintracht Frankfurt, which has long been reluctant to give it up.
His public message where he asks for his transfer, then his training strike will not have been too much. The time was not really for optimism during the draw for the Champions League on Thursday in Monaco. Hope was slim on the side of Nasser Al-Khelaïfi. Yet it is he who will succeed the next day, the last of the transfer window to tip the scales. A new Parisian offer (€75m + €15m) sent around 1 p.m. is suitable.
Ekitike as the key to the deal
According to The Team, who reports this sequence of events, Eintracht says yes in principle but on condition of finding a replacement for the Frenchman before 6 p.m., when the German transfer window closes its doors. This player is all found, it is Hugo Ekitike. The latter is not closed to a departure but he and his agents want the same contract as in Paris. The discussions continue, intensify but do not yet find a way out. The clock is ticking, as Crystal Palace makes a new offer: a €30m loan with an option to buy, plus €5m in bonuses.
This English destination appeals to Ekitike, but not to PSG, which needs fresh money, and therefore a sale, in addition to keeping its commitment to Eintracht. It smells like the end of the deal, while Kolo Muani waits from his home in Paris. It was then that Al-Khelaïfi raised his voice to the Ekitike clan, which did not understand since Frankfurt’s interest was never really sincere. The transfer is about to die when NAK takes his phone.
Eintracht ends up giving in thanks to Al-Khelaïfi
He contacts his German counterpart, Peter Fischer, whom he knows well. The exchange is cordial and goes much better than between Luis Campos and Markus Krösche, the DS of the Eagles, who have been blocking for weeks. The structure of the offer changes, the exchanges intensify and the German club ends up giving in, also in the face of Kolo Muani’s desire to no longer wear the team jersey, and without having found a replacement. For now…
