Michael Olise’s Bayern Munich career is off to a sensational start. The 22-year-old has scored five and created three in six games across all competitions, but the Frenchman came close to joining fellow Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt.
Speaking to Sky90, Eintracht sporting director Markus Krösche revealed that Olise could have moved to the Bundesliga much earlier after they monitored the player during his time at then Championship club Reading.
“We looked into him three years ago,” said Krösche. “He had an exit clause at the time. I think it was eight or nine million, but we didn’t have the money to pay that at the time.”
When pushed on whether €8m was too much, Krösche replied: “We didn’t have that back then and couldn’t pay it at that moment.”
Eintracht Frankfurt excel at recruitment
There’s no doubt that Eintracht Frankfurt has one of the best recruitment policies. What they couldn’t spend in 2021, they can spend now, after signing Jean-Matteo Bahoya (19) from Angers in January for €8m.
SGE also secured the signing of Omar Marmoush on a free transfer from Wolfsburg, while making Hugo Ekitiké move from Paris Saint-Germain permanent for €16.5m – the French attacker is in excellent form with three goals and three assists in five games this season while creating an excellent partnership with Marmoush, who has scored four and created two in five games.
This comes after the sale of Randal Kolo Muani to PSG for €95m last summer, as well as the departure of Jesper Lindstrøm to Napoli for €30m.
GGFN | Daniel Pinder