As kicker report, Atubolu now sees a move to Eintracht Frankfurt as the "most stable alternative" after his plan to join a European heavyweight, ideally from the Premier League, went completely wrong.
Atubolu and his now former agency Epic Sports badly misjudged the situation before the summer transfer window, turning down a contract extension at SC Freiburg beyond 2027 to underline the keeper's desire to move to a top club. Freiburg moved quickly and signed Mio Backhaus as their new number one for a record fee of 12 million euros. Atubolu, though, suddenly found himself at a standstill.
Reliable interest or even concrete offers from England, for example from Aston Villa, never materialised despite expectations. Elsewhere, too, there was barely any movement in the market that appealed to Atubolu. kicker recently reported that the 24-year-old had been "dissatisfied for a long time" with the work of his advisers. Now he has finally run out of patience. kicker report that Atubolu has "officially parted ways with Epic Sports after sorting out all the formalities". The specialist magazine has now also had that confirmed.
Atubolu was apparently also lured with possible BVB interest
Ali Barat's widely known and eccentric agency had "also got Atubolu excited and kept him interested with three attractive if-then scenarios", it was said. According to the report, Barat and his employee Marcel Brillmann suggested to Atubolu that he was a hot transfer candidate at Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan and Aston Villa, among others, should the established number one at those clubs leave. That quite clearly was not the case at any of them.
With the horror scenario of spending a season in the stands in Freiburg looming, and with a possible future in the German national team also in mind, Atubolu had to rethink. After splitting from Epic Sports, Frankfurt now apparently offer him a way out.
A week and a half before the start of the Bundesliga, the Hessians are suddenly looking for a new number one after the 7-0 thrashing against Brentford, with neither the injury-prone and error-prone Kaua Santos nor Michael Zetterer, who only arrived from Werder Bremen last summer, able to convince new coach Adi Hütter. On Sunday, kicker then revealed their interest in Atubolu.
Getty ImagesSC Freiburg are reportedly demanding 15 million for Atubolu - Hradecky an alternative?
The only question is whether Eintracht can afford a goalkeeper who may soon be Germany's national team keeper at all. Despite the widely known dilemma, Freiburg want at least 15 million euros for Atubolu. SGE, however, have not yet reached their planned transfer surplus of 50 million euros this summer.
According to kicker there have not yet been any concrete negotiations between Freiburg and Eintracht. The same applies to Hütter's former club Monaco and SGE. Recently, besides Atubolu, Eintracht were also linked with a return for Lukas Hradecky, who remains hugely popular in Frankfurt. According to kicker the trail is not "hot", however.
One thing is certain, though: board member for sport Markus Krösche will not focus only on Atubolu in the goalkeeping issue, "so as not to weaken his negotiating position with Freiburg". The signing or loan of a number two from a foreign top club also remains conceivable.
Atubolu is apparently looking again at other transfer options
What happens next in Frankfurt over the goalkeeping position until a new goalkeeper possibly arrives? In the first round of the DFB Cup this weekend against SC St. Tönis, Kaua Santos will once again be between the posts. Hütter confirmed that at a press conference on Wednesday. "We will go into the game with him. Then we will see what happens in future," said the Austrian.
Meanwhile, Atubolu is at least back keeping fit in Freiburg's team training after previously working individually. And although he can well imagine a move to SGE, he is currently putting his affairs in order once again and checking "how concrete the long-standing interest from other clubs such as Napoli, Marseille or Bournemouth is".
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