According to kicker and the Süddeutsche Zeitung, the goalkeeper pulled the plug on Wednesday. Around seven months after joining the self-styled "boutique" agency on 4 January, Atubolu still has not found a new club after telling SC Freiburg he wanted to leave and, in that context, rejecting an extension to his contract, which runs until 2027.
Epic Sports had already confirmed the split to kicker when asked. Only a few days ago, the specialist magazine reported major dissatisfaction from Atubolu with the work of his advisers. The 24-year-old is said to have been given false promises. He was allegedly led to believe he was a leading transfer target at Borussia Dortmund, AC Milan and Aston Villa if the established number one at those clubs left. But at no stage this summer was a change between the posts on the cards at any of them.
For weeks, it has been clear that Atubolu can forget about the dream of the Premier League. According to reports, his only options so far have been moves to promoted sides Hull and Coventry City. But the ambitious keeper, who is among the candidates to succeed Manuel Neuer in the Germany goal, is said to have turned both clubs down. Time is now running out. The transfer window in Europe's top leagues closes on 1 September, and the five major leagues are already up and running. In Spain, the league season has already started.
Will Noah Atubolu now move to Eintracht Frankfurt?
To avoid the nightmare scenario of spending a season in the stands in the Breisgau, Atubolu is now said to be reconsidering. Freiburg have already signed a successor in Mio Backhaus from SV Werder Bremen for a club-record 12 million euros. The most likely escape route now appears to be in the Bundesliga.
According to kicker, Eintracht Frankfurt have Atubolu on their radar, and he can now also imagine a move to the Main. After the heavy 7-0 thrashing in the friendly against Brentford FC, the Hessians are looking for a new number one. Neither the injury-prone and error-prone Kaua Santos nor Michael Zetterer, who only arrived from Werder Bremen last summer, are said to have convinced new head coach Adi Hütter.
However, the question is whether Eintracht can afford Atubolu at all. Despite the well-known saga, Freiburg are still said to be demanding a transfer fee of 15 million euros, while SGE have not yet reached their planned transfer surplus of 50 million euros this summer. So far, there have been no concrete negotiations between the two clubs. One of the current goalkeeping duo would also probably still have to be sold. Zetterer, however, is said to be pushing to stay, while the market for Kaua Santos is unlikely to be particularly strong because of his many mistakes and proneness to injury.
As an alternative to Atubolu, there has recently been speculation about a move to bring back Lukas Hradecky, who would probably be significantly cheaper at least in terms of a transfer fee. However, the 36-year-old is also said to be earning a princely salary at AS Monaco and, because of his age, would at best be a stopgap. According to information from kicker, the trail to the Finn is not hot for that reason either. Before his move to Bayer Leverkusen in 2018, he had guarded Eintracht's goal for three years.
IMAGONoah Atubolu's adviser: What is Ali Barat known for?
While weighing up a potential move to Frankfurt, Atubolu is also exploring other options, according to kicker. The goalkeeper, who spent a long period training individually and has now at least returned to team training with Freiburg, has also been loosely linked in recent times with Napoli, Olympique Marseille and Bournemouth.
By contrast, the team around Ali Barat had completely misread the situation. That is hard to explain. Epic Sports are, after all, extremely well connected. The agency represents a collection of high-status players and big names. Among other deals, they brokered the 130-million-euro move of Moises Caicedo to Chelsea in summer 2023. Barat, who has already twice been voted agent of the year by the Italian sports newspaper Tuttosport , is also no stranger to Bayern Munich.
Last year, the Iranian brokered Nicolas Jackson's costly loan deal with Chelsea and then above all 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 normally never made public in such detail in the industry.