Nathaniel Brown earns place on Eintracht Frankfurt’s Europa League squad | OneFootball

Eintracht Frankfurt, the Bundesliga’s loan remaining Europa League representative – along with every other club in the competition – has been permitted to make squad changes ahead of the 2025 knockout portion of the competition. Head coach Dino Toppmöller has made three changes from their league phase squad.

Obviously, two new strikers were required to replace the departed Omar Marmoush and injured Igor Matanovic. No thinking was required on Toppmöller’s part in this case, as new January signings Elye Wahi and Michy Batshuayi filled this need. The SGE head coach did still have a slot to fill after dropping out-of-favor French attacking midfielder Eric Junior Dina Ebimbe.

In this case, newly resurgent Danish midfielder Oscar Højlund competed with, among others, Germany youth international Nathaniel Brown. The 21-year-old German-American – who has been rising alongside his Germany U21 teammate Nnamdi Collins – got the nod.

Toppmöller spoke on the matter at his Friday pre-match press conference.

“Sometimes things go badly for a footballer,” Toppmöller said of Højlund’s selection. “He [Højlund] would have been involved in the summer, but then he broke his foot,” said the coach. ”Then the situation arose with Omar out of nowhere. You have to take the new striker with you and there were only two places left.

“Then Igor got injured and we reacted again with a striker transfer [Batshuayi] – and there was only one place left,” Toppmöller continued. “And because of the selection we have in midfield and on the left side, we decided on Nene [Brown].

“It wasn’t easy for me,” Toppmöller emphasised. “I told [Højlund] that we would have loved to have him. I am one hundred percent convinced that he will play international matches with Eintracht Frankfurt, even if he has to be patient for a little while.”

GGFN | Peter Weis