Robin Koch

Central Defender - Eintracht Frankfurt
3 Jan 2027
Sunday
Process

Marked for Robin Koch

21 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

21 Dec 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

The dugout

Otávio keeps the receipts

“I remember the meeting. I remember exactly what was promised in it.” Eintracht Frankfurt may remember it differently, which is precisely the problem.

Match

Whatever happens, Eintracht Frankfurt do not lose

7 games unbeaten now. Some were earned and some were survived, but a habit is forming — and habits are the hardest thing in football to play against.

Squad

Real improvement from Kauã Santos at Eintracht Frankfurt

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Kauã Santos is 23, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

The dugout

Markus Pohl: “We have to be better”

“It is not the end of the world and it is not good enough. Both of those are true.” The manager, after a 0‑0 draw, said the honest thing and then went to say it again inside.

Market

The Robin Koch story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Robin Koch signs something — a contract at Eintracht Frankfurt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

The dugout

Oscar Højlund gets picked when it counts

Every manager keeps a short list in his head of the men he wants on the pitch when the stakes rise, and it is never published. The team sheets for the big afternoons say Oscar Højlund is on it.

Match

Eintracht Frankfurt and Köln cancel each other out

Nil-nil, and few chances worth the name. Köln came to defend and left with exactly what they came for.

Player ratings

Arnaud Kalimuendo keeps on missing

Shots: 8, not one of them in. A centre forward is paid for one thing, and on this evidence he has forgotten which thing it is.

The dugout

Anthony Martial does not fit this one

Ninety specific minutes wanted a different sort of player, and the manager picked one. He is not out of form and he is not in the side, and both are true.

In brief

Back issues
16 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

16 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

Lilian Brassier in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eintracht Frankfurt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Market

No place for Mahmoud Dahoud in the plan

“The manager did not use many words, and he did not need to.” Mahmoud Dahoud has his answer from Eintracht Frankfurt; what he does with it is the next window’s story.

Market

Robin Koch linked with a move away

The name of Robin Koch keeps appearing in other people's back pages. Eintracht Frankfurt say nothing, which says plenty.

Squad

Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab wants to know why he earns less

Numbers do not stay secret in a dressing room. He is not asking for more than he is worth; he is asking why somebody beside him is worth more, and Eintracht Frankfurt have no good answer.

The dugout

Kauã Santos asks for a word with the manager

“I would rather say it to his face than read about it.” The meeting was requested by the player, which tells you most of what you need to know.

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt put Timothy Chandler up for sale

The list is a quiet document with a loud meaning. Timothy Chandler may talk to anybody who asks, and everybody at the club understands what that means.

In brief

14 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

2 Nov 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Squad

7 saves: Noah Atubolu was the team

Some afternoons a goalkeeper is the whole of the defence. 7 saves, several of them the kind nobody expects to see made, and ten outfield players who owe him a drink.

Player ratings

Nobody could get near Ansgar Knauff

Successful dribbles: 25. Every time he got the ball somebody had to make a decision, and every time the decision was wrong.

Market

Robin Koch raises the bar for Eintracht Frankfurt

“I want to be playing for trophies while my legs still let me.” Nothing in that sentence is a transfer request, and nobody at Eintracht Frankfurt heard it as anything else.

Match

Eintracht Frankfurt come up short against RB Leipzig

RB Leipzig left with the points after a 1‑3 defeat that will take some explaining on the terraces.

Squad

Elias Baum signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Elias Baum and Eintracht Frankfurt agree another 5 years.

The dugout

The manager’s verdict

“That is on me. I pick the team and I picked wrong.” Managers say that when they mean it and when they need to be seen to, and after 1‑3 Markus Pohl left the room before anybody could ask which.

The dugout

Michy Batshuayi gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

A place in the month's best eleven for Elias Baum

Four or five weekends of consistency, judged against everybody in the division doing his job. Elias Baum has come out of that comparison in the side, and Eintracht Frankfurt have had the benefit of every one of those afternoons.

The dugout

Anthony Martial is still being punished for one mistake

Nobody will confirm it and the team sheets confirm it every week. One error has bought him a spell as second choice that is already longer than the error deserved.

In brief

12 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

19 Oct 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Squad

Nnamdi Collins damages knee ligaments — 19 days out

The words a physio says slowly. 19 days is what the club will announce and everybody who has heard this diagnosis before knows the number is the least of it: the knee comes back before the player does.

Squad

Noah Atubolu stands alone

11 saves, and a scoreline the ten men in front of him had no right to. Goalkeepers only get noticed on the bad days; this was one of the other ones.

Match

Chastening afternoon for Eintracht Frankfurt

A 0‑4 beating by Bayern Munich was the sort of result that empties a stadium long before the final whistle.

Squad

Can Uzun is a better footballer than he was

Not a run of form — an actual step up, held for months. At 20 he is doing things at this level he could not do at the start of the season, and the coaching staff will tell you exactly which of them.

The dugout

Noah Atubolu gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Match

Bayern Munich end the Eintracht Frankfurt run at 5

Every run ends on an afternoon somebody had marked down as routine. This one went 5 matches, which is long enough that a town had stopped counting, and short enough that it will remember exactly who stopped it.

Boardroom

Nobody left the Eintracht Frankfurt dressing room in a hurry

The door stayed shut a long time after the final whistle. What was said in there is between them; whether it worked is between them and Saturday.

Squad

Too much change too quickly at Eintracht Frankfurt

7 signings in three months. Every one of them may be an upgrade and the team can still be worse for a while, which is the part of a rebuild that never appears in the transfer-window verdicts.

The dugout

The view from the dugout

“We will look at it, we will learn from it, and we go again.” The three sentences every manager keeps for a 0‑4 defeat, delivered by Markus Pohl to a room that had heard them before.

In brief

9 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

28 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The knee: Nnamdi Collins out for 45 days

45 days on the announcement, and a year of quiet, unwatched rehabilitation behind it. Eintracht Frankfurt lose a player for a season; he loses something harder to name.

Match

Arnaud Kalimuendo leads the rout of St. Pauli

3‑0, and Arnaud Kalimuendo took the headlines on an afternoon when everything Eintracht Frankfurt tried came off. Days like this are retold all winter.

Player ratings

Both of them Arnaud Kalimuendo's — 9.39

2 goals, and the second was the one that settled it. Marked 9.39, and he could have had a third with better luck at the near post.

Player ratings

Vintage Mario Götze — 8.31

At 34 every good afternoon gets called a throwback, and this one was: 8.31, and nobody on the pitch better.

Match

Eintracht Frankfurt cannot stop winning

4 wins on the spin now, and the question has changed from whether the run ends to who ends it. Confidence like this cannot be bought; it has to be earned exactly this way.

Squad

A falling-out at Eintracht Frankfurt

Robin Koch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Squad

Real improvement from Keita Kosugi at Eintracht Frankfurt

Form comes and goes; this has not gone. Keita Kosugi is 20, and the version of him training now would not have got into the side he was in a year ago.

The terraces

One of their own: Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab

He is 21 and the ground already sings his name, which is a thing that happens to local boys and almost never to signings. Everything from here is measured against an affection he did nothing to earn except be from here.

Match

Arnaud Kalimuendo at the heart of a fast Eintracht Frankfurt start

2 goals inside twenty minutes with Arnaud Kalimuendo in the middle of it, and St. Pauli unable to get near the ball long enough to change anything. Some matches are won before the first drink.

In brief

8 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

21 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Triumph

Squad

The step up is real for Can Uzun

At 20 he is doing things this season that he could not do last season, and doing them every week. Form comes and goes; this has stayed long enough to be called something else.

Match

Eintracht Frankfurt make it 3 in a row

Momentum is a hard thing to buy and an easy thing to lose, and right now Eintracht Frankfurt have 3 straight wins of it.

Squad

Robin Koch in a row with a teammate

It was not about football and everybody who saw it knows that. Two men who have to play together on Saturday said things at Eintracht Frankfurt this week that will take longer than a week to unsay.

Player ratings

Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab runs at them all day

Successful dribbles: 22. There is a particular sort of despair on a full-back's face by the seventieth minute, and it was on display.

Match

Eintracht Frankfurt get the job done against Werder Bremen

A 2‑1 win over Werder Bremen, earned rather than given, and the sort of afternoon that sends everyone home talking about next week instead of this one.

The terraces

The crowd has taken to Nnamdi Collins

At 22 he is being sung about by people twice his age, which is an affection a signing has to earn over years and a local kid gets for turning up. It is also the hardest thing in football to live up to.

Player ratings

A masterclass from Jonathan Burkardt

Marked 8.17 — the sort of number a correspondent writes down twice to be sure. Everything he tried came off, and what he did not try was not worth trying.

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt may not be able to give Otávio what he wants

It is the most legitimate ambition in the sport and the hardest for most clubs to satisfy. Otávio wants continental football; whether Eintracht Frankfurt can provide it is a question about the next two seasons, not about him.

The dugout

Markus Pohl has his say

“We earned that. I asked them for a reaction and I got one, and now I want the same again on Saturday.” Markus Pohl on a 2‑1 afternoon that pleased him more than he was prepared to show.

In brief

6 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

7 Sep 2026
From our football correspondent Upbeat

Transfer targets

Anton Stach stays at Leeds United as time runs out

A deal that was a phone call from completion at lunchtime was dead by midnight. Eintracht Frankfurt will try again when the window opens; Leeds United may not be selling by then.

Market

Robin Koch asks to leave Eintracht Frankfurt

“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.

Transfer targets

St. Pauli tell Eintracht Frankfurt: Mathias Pereira Lage is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Boardroom

Window shuts: 10 in, 0 out at Eintracht Frankfurt

The deadline has passed and the squad is the squad. 10 arrived, 0 left, and everything else printed about this club last month was a rumour that stayed one.

Squad

Raphael Onyedika is no longer first choice

The manager has re-ordered his thinking and Raphael Onyedika has come out of it lower. He will be told it is temporary, and the players who have heard that before will avoid his eye.

The dugout

Anthony Martial is still paying for one afternoon at Eintracht Frankfurt

Nobody will confirm this and nothing else explains the last month of selections. A costly error buys a player a period of being second choice that is always longer than the error was.

Squad

Jonathan Burkardt loses the armband

The captaincy has been taken off Jonathan Burkardt. Eintracht Frankfurt will call it a decision about the team; a dressing room reads it as a verdict on a man.

Market

The Jonathan Burkardt story refuses to die

It has been denied twice and printed three times, which is the usual arithmetic. Until Jonathan Burkardt signs something — a contract at Eintracht Frankfurt or anywhere else — this column belongs to him.

Market

The market said no: Mahmoud Dahoud stays put

Eintracht Frankfurt opened the door and nobody walked through it. So Mahmoud Dahoud stays — listed, trained, and available — while both sides mark the days to January on the same calendar.

In brief

3 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

17 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Manchester City tell Eintracht Frankfurt: Jérémy Doku is not for sale

The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.

Transfer targets

Eintracht Frankfurt baulk at the price for Jamal Musiala

Bayern Munich wanted more than $25.4M and the board would not go there. Walked away, for now, which in a transfer window means until somebody blinks.

Market

Eintracht Frankfurt turn down Bayern Munich for Jonathan Burkardt

The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.

Squad

Tempers go at Eintracht Frankfurt

Lilian Brassier was at the centre of it, and by the time it was pulled apart there were three or four others involved. Training grounds are small places and long seasons make them smaller.

The dugout

Farès Chaïbi gets it from the manager

“Nobody here is above being told.” It was not said with a name attached, but the dressing room can count, and so can everybody who was listening.

Squad

7 new faces, and Eintracht Frankfurt are still learning each other

A squad rebuilt inside one window pays for it in a currency nobody budgets for. The football is not worse than the sum of the players; it is worse than the sum of the players who have played together before.

In brief

2 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

10 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

No deal for Ridle Baku at that price

Eintracht Frankfurt offered $20.5M; RB Leipzig said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.

Transfer targets

Eintracht Frankfurt bid $9.5M for Raphaël Guerreiro

The offer went to Bayern Munich this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Transfer targets

Eintracht Frankfurt rebuffed over Fabian Rieder

Not now, not at any price the club was prepared to say out loud. FC Augsburg have kept their man, and Eintracht Frankfurt go back to a list with one name crossed off it.

Transfer targets

An offer of $6.6M for Robert Andrich

Eintracht Frankfurt have gone to Bayer Leverkusen with a bid, and the supporters have gone to the internet with an opinion about it. Whether either changes anything is up to the selling club.

Market

Can Uzun wants more than Eintracht Frankfurt are offering

“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.

Squad

Jonathan Burkardt signs on for more

“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Jonathan Burkardt and Eintracht Frankfurt agree another 4 years.

Squad

A falling-out at Eintracht Frankfurt

Robin Koch and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.

Market

Elias Baum attracts admirers

The name of Elias Baum has come up in conversations Eintracht Frankfurt were not part of. Nothing formal, nothing signed — but nothing about it accidental either.

Market

Tim Friedrich steps up from the Eintracht Frankfurt academy

There is no fee, no unveiling and no agent on the steps. Tim Friedrich has been at this club since he was a boy and is now, formally, one of the first-team squad — which for a local readership beats any signing of any size.

In brief

1 Edition

The Eintracht Frankfurt Gazette

3 Aug 2026
From our football correspondent Steady

Transfer targets

Door shut on Denis Zakaria

Eintracht Frankfurt asked and Monaco said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.

Transfer targets

Eintracht Frankfurt bid $15.0M for Ridle Baku

The offer went to RB Leipzig this week and it is theirs to answer. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loud the door closes.

Squad

15 seasons of Timothy Chandler

330 appearances across 15 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Eintracht Frankfurt know what they have.

Squad

Anthony Martial arrives at the club he grew up with

Every footballer has an answer to the question about his boyhood club, and most of them never get to act on it. Anthony Martial has, at Eintracht Frankfurt, and the first month will show what that does to a man.

Market

Robin Koch wants to know where this is going

“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Eintracht Frankfurt hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.

Squad

Mario Götze stays put

“The easiest signature of my career.” Mario Götze and Eintracht Frankfurt agree another 2 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.

Squad

Words exchanged at Eintracht Frankfurt

Robin Koch and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.

Market

Kauã Santos has his eye on Europe

It is not a grievance and it is not a demand: he wants to play continental football, and he has stopped hiding it. Whether Eintracht Frankfurt can give him that is a question about the club, not about him.

Market

Nobody at Eintracht Frankfurt has picked up the phone to Raphael Onyedika

49 months to run and not a word offered. A club that lets the calendar negotiate for it usually ends up losing to the calendar.

In brief