Bayern Munich Alumni: Joshua Zirkzee still a potential option for Eintracht Frankfurt

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24 July 2024, 20:15 yayınlandı

Joshua Zirkzee was sold by Bayern Munich to Bologna last summer. It has been a bit of a wild ride over the past few years for the Dutchman, who has quite the history of moving around — and could do so again.

In the winter of 2021, Zirkzee went to Parma in Italy. After his loan spell there, he had a stint at RSC Anderlecht in Belgium before going to Bologna back in Italy, which is where he’s been for the 2022/23 season that’s been hampered by intermittent injury problems.

Per information from Sky Sports’ Florian Plettenberg, Eintracht Frankfurt is still monitoring Zirkzee’s situation, though nothing at this point is in what would be considered to be advanced stages. They have other players that they would prefer to bring in, while also trying to negotiate with Bayern’s asking price for a compensation fee to have Dino Toppmöller replace Oliver Glasner as manager. Frankfurt have already announced that they’d be parting ways with Glasner following the end of the season, but they are reluctant to meet Bayern’s 500,000 euro asking price for the compensation fee since he’s technically, much like Julian Nagelsmann, still under contract with Bayern.

Per Plettenberg, Frankfurt has both Hugo Ekitike from Paris Saint-Germain (on loan from Reims) and Olympique Lyon’s Moussa Dembélé higher on their list than Zirkzee. They are potentially prepping for the sale of striker Randal Kolo Muani this summer, though they still are focusing on other transfer targets and would likely want a higher caliber replacement than Zirkzee as a natural striker.

Zirkzee’s best spell, without question, was with Anderlecht in the 2021/22 season where he tallied 18 goals and 13 assists from a total of 47 appearances across all competitions. It had become clear in the 2020/21 season that the high expectations of the Dutchmen weren’t going to be filled, at least at Bayern where he always had to play second fiddle to Robert Lewandowski. In the 2019/20 season, he showed glimpses of brilliance when he filled in for the Polish ace when he was sidelined with a knee problem. The stint on the sidelines would’ve seen him miss a lot more matches for Bayern had it not been for the coronavirus pandemic pausing play for over two months.