"He'll come round to that eventually": Uli Hoeneß offers transfer advice to a Bundesliga rival

No other Bundesliga club has sold as many players abroad for such high fees in recent years as Eintracht. In 2023, Randal Kolo Muani moved to Paris Saint-Germain for €95 million; in January 2025, Omar Marmoush joined Manchester City for €75 million, followed by Hugo Ekitike’s move to Liverpool FC in the summer for €95 million. 

On the pitch, however, Eintracht are struggling to live up to their own standards. In the Bundesliga, Frankfurt currently sit in seventh place, whilst they were knocked out early in both the Champions League and the DFB-Pokal.

Meanwhile, Hoeneß’s FC Bayern has never received more than 45 million euros for a single player. Robert Lewandowski moved to FC Barcelona (2022), Lucas Hernandez to PSG (2023) and Matthijs de Ligt to Manchester United (2024) for that sum. 

FC Bayern, however, holds the record for the most expensive signing in the Bundesliga: in 2023, the Munich club paid around 100 million euros for Harry Kane. “Today I’d buy him for 150 million,” boasted Hoeneß. “Because he’s a dream for Bayern Munich. A global figurehead. A good character, a role model for our youth, our 18-year-olds. He puts his arm around them. He tells them how they need to shoot the ball.”

With a nine-point lead over Borussia Dortmund, Hoeneß is confident of retaining the league title. The DFB-Pokal semi-final against Bayer Leverkusen will be “tough”, just like the upcoming Champions League quarter-final against Real Madrid. 

“They don’t play that great football, but they’re outstanding in terms of experience and they’re in peak condition,” said Hoeneß. “It would be completely presumptuous to assume we’ll go through. But we haven’t had such a good chance in terms of the standard of play for a long time as we have this year.”