Noah Atubolu had imagined his current day-to-day life very differently. While his team-mates recently prepared for the new season against a picturesque Alpine backdrop, he stayed behind on his current employers SC Freiburg's training ground. Even months after submitting his transfer request a year before the end of his contract, he is still nowhere near his goal of joining a top European club, ideally in England.
So far, the 24-year-old has not found a new club that meets his demands. A quick solution is not in sight. The highly talented goalkeeper, regarded as a future hope for the DFB, has badly overplayed his hand. "Perhaps we all underestimated a little how late momentum arrives in this particular goalkeeper market," SC sporting director Klemens Hartenbach recently told kicker.
Atubolu is not the only one struggling to find the right move. Marc-Andre ter Stegen's loan switch to Ajax dragged on for weeks before it was announced on Tuesday, the previously clubless Stefan Ortega made what initially looked like an unusual move to Olympiakos Piraeus, and Alexander Nübel also failed to land in one of the top leagues and, somewhat surprisingly, signed for Besiktas Istanbul.
The obvious assumption is that the goalkeeper market is simply oversaturated. That would be too simplistic. Several factors are driving a situation in which highly gifted goalkeepers at club level supposedly have to settle for less or could even be left behind entirely.
Stagnating goalkeeper market: the main problem lies in England
England is the main reason there has been so little movement. More specifically, it is the Premier League, as Markus Krösche also recently pointed out in kicker. "You can tell that all clubs first have to sell. The buyers' market in England is only really starting now. They bring the money into the market - all the other countries don't really bring much money into the market any more. Bayern have invested now, but that's our industry's frontrunner with different conditions. All the other clubs are waiting for sales because they need income. We have already brought in more than 80 million euros, which was certainly also helpful for our transfers on the incoming side," said Eintracht Frankfurt's board member for sport.
Krösche was not talking only about goalkeepers, but the wider market. Aside from the absolute elite, the other leagues are, in a sense, dependent on the island. Plenty of mid-ranking and lower-ranking clubs in Spain, France or Italy, beyond giants such as Barca, Real, Inter or PSG, are not even in a position to sign a goalkeeper or outfield player who would trigger a market-shifting domino effect.
According to information from SPOX, a back-up goalkeeper in the Premier League even earns more than some number ones in the other top leagues. Only when the English market wakes up does most of the money flow into the other leagues like a waterfall and spread across the various markets. Right down to the lower divisions. In England, though, clubs traditionally move very late, and that has also shaped a transfer window that has been quiet so far. The phenomenon known in football as the summer lull can therefore just as easily be applied to the transfer market.
Getty ImagesAbsurd imbalance: Man City's back-up keeper moves for more than €40m
James Trafford's impending move offers more evidence of that imbalance. According to consistent media reports, Leeds United are set to pay well over €40 million to Manchester City for the first back-up to GIanluigi Donnarumma, who, since his return in summer 2025, has at least made 17 appearances for his boyhood club despite his status as number two. Even so, his game time does not justify the absurdly high fee of €31.2 million that the Skyblues paid to Burnley FC for the then 22-year-old via a release clause, and yet ManCity are still making a hefty transfer profit from the brief spell.
Olympique Marseille are expected to bring in Rulli as his replacement, with the 34-year-old cashing in once more before the end of his career. Yet with the comparatively modest millions from Manchester, the traditional club still cannot afford a new number one from the Atubolu bracket, who is supposed to bring Freiburg around €20 million, given the lack of financial power in France. Instead, they will shop one or two shelves lower.
The same applies, in a sense, to Nübel. For the World Cup participant, who most recently spent three years on loan at VfB Stuttgart, the financial side also played an overriding role in his surprising and heavily scrutinised move from the top leagues to Besiktas Istanbul. He had no market in his preferred destination, England. Other clubs outside the island, meanwhile, were nowhere near able to cover the overall package of fee and high salary.
To make up for the shortfall on his payslip, he is even said to have insisted on a compensation payment from FCB. The top Turkish club, who have faltered in recent years, are funding the move through a property development project that is expected to generate up to €400 million in revenue. According to information from SPOX, the move to the Turkish metropolis was ultimately a consensus decision based on a full bank account and a guaranteed starting spot at a potential European participant. Similar to Ortega.
Tap turned off: Saudi Arabia no longer an alternative to England
That leaves clubs with less money and only one real option: move quickly. In Germany, that pattern has been clear for years. Even Bayern Munich, who are miles ahead financially, wrapped up their incoming business early with the signings of Nathaniel Brown and Ismael Saibari and will not change anything unless one of the big stars unexpectedly leaves after all.
The World Cup has also played a part in slowing the market down further. America became the focus, both players and agents initially went on holiday, and only now are they gradually returning to day-to-day business. On top of that, the Saudi Arabian market has changed noticeably. The wealthy sheikhs seem to have turned off the tap, which means an alternative market to England has fallen away. The current rumours around Cristiano Ronaldo's club Al-Nassr underline that, according to which the desert state's sovereign investment funds (PIF) have imposed a transfer ban on the club because of its high debt mountain. The liabilities are said to amount to just over €187 million.
Usually, the transfer market only really gets going again in mid-August, when players can put themselves in the shop window and impress in league matches. Selling clubs then have less time to find a replacement, which pushes prices up. It is a familiar pattern from recent years, and once again it naturally plays into the hands of the waiting clubs from England.
That is why it came as no surprise that SC Freiburg moved early for an Atubolu replacement in Mio Backhaus (€12 million from Werder Bremen), even though he has not yet left. Otherwise, the Breisgau club would have risked being left without a replacement if he departed shortly before the transfer window closes on 1 September. Especially as the expected sizeable income from an Atubolu sale would almost certainly also have pushed up the fees demanded of SCF.
Getty ImagesNot unknown to Bayern Munich either: Noah Atubolu's adviser has miscalculated
That makes the situation Atubolu has manoeuvred himself into, or been manoeuvred into, all the more surprising. The suspicion is obvious that he and, above all, his advisers have completely misread the market and underestimated it. Everyone should have known that the goalkeeper market is generally tougher because there are fewer spots available in each team. But misjudging the problem outlined above to this extent is hard to explain.
His agency is hardly unknown either. Since January 2026, a few months before his transfer request became public, he has been represented by Epic Sports and star adviser Ali Barat, who is no stranger to Bayern Munich. Last summer, the Iranian brokered Nicolas Jackson's costly loan move to Chelsea and then mainly celebrated himself for it in a more than bizarre press release under the headline "Ali Barat has redefined the game". The statement appeared just 13 minutes after the official announcement of the transfer, including figures that are usually never made public in such detail in the industry.
Barat's stable now includes a motley collection of players with status and name, which makes the misreading in Atubolu's case look even more surprising. So does the fact that at the end of 2025 he was awarded a prize by Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport as the best agent of the year. It was the second time after 2023, putting him level with fellow two-time winner and long-time CR7 adviser Jorge Mendes (Gestifute).
He has still not been able to fulfil his client's dream of the island, though, as Atubolu has been "a big fan" of the Premier League "since childhood". According to Hartenbach, Atubolu is now in a transitional phase and is "holding personal talks with clubs himself". But the hoped-for domino effect still has not materialised and may not materialise at all in his key position. On top of that, despite everything, he still has certain expectations of his new employers. Hull City and Coventry City were reportedly at least one size too small for him. Atubolu is said to have turned down both promoted clubs.
The search for the best possible solution cannot drag on much longer. Otherwise, Atubolu faces a lost year in the stands at Freiburg. Entirely without the chance to recommend himself to the new Germany head coach Jürgen Klopp for the vacant number one spot in the German goal. Until then, his relationship status with his dream destination remains complicated, and of all things it is down to the Premier League itself.