Off to the Far East.

From November 13th to 20th this year, Eintracht Frankfurt will travel to Asia for a "Japan Tour".

The first port of call for head coach Oliver Glasner's Bundesliga team is the capital and metropolis of Tokyo.

There the Europa League winner takes part in the "Saitama City Cup" and will meet the Urawa Red Diamonds on Wednesday (November 16, local time 7:30 p.m.).

The game will be played in "Saitama Stadium 2002", which offers space for almost 64,000 spectators.

George Daniels

Editor in the sports department

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The current Japanese Emperor's Cup and Super Cup winner once had the 38-year-old Eintracht professional Makoto Hasebe under contract, who has two jobs off the pitch: as a brand ambassador for Eintracht and the German Football League (DFL).

The Frankfurt brand ambassadors Uwe Bein, Naohiro Takahara and Uwe Rahn used to be active for the Urawa Red Diamonds.

Match against the Japanese champions

On November 18, the Eintracht entourage will continue their journey to Osaka, Japan's third largest city.

A day later, the Frankfurters compete with the two-time Japanese champion, Gamba Osaka.

For their trip, the Hessians are using the Bundesliga break, which lasts until the end of January 2023 due to the World Cup in Qatar.

Eintracht will start right after the 15th matchday (away game in Mainz), which is the last one this year.

On the penultimate weekend in January 2023, the Hessians will welcome Schalke 04 at the start of the second half of the season.

With their one-week trip under the motto "Building a bridge to Japan", the Frankfurters want to "intensify" their international activities in Japan.

The aim of the Champions League participant is to expand its international network and become more attractive in Asia.

Due to the corona pandemic, Eintracht had not made any trips to distant countries in the past two years.

Before that, the Hessians had gone to training camps in Abu Dhabi and the United States during the winter break.

"Bridge between cultures"

In addition to the two friendlies in Japan, “other cultural and local events and fan events” are on the program this time.

Eintracht's appearance in the Land of the Rising Sun is part of the Bundesliga Japan Tour 2022. The former captain of the Japanese national team, Hasebe, has a special role to play "to strengthen the existing bridge between the two cultures and stakeholders", as it said in a message from Eintracht.

Hasebe, who is Japan's Franz Beckenbauer, classifies Frankfurt as one of "the core Bundesliga brands in the Japanese population".

In addition to the brand ambassadors Hasebe and Bein, who is now 61 years old, Daichi Kamada is said to play a "central role" in the campaigns in Japan.

But the 25-year-old Eintracht professional may not be there because he could be in the World Cup squad for the Japanese national team.

Or Kamada, who is said to be very interested in the Premier League in England, changed employers in the summer transfer window until September 1st.

The Japanese are the Germans' opening opponent in Group E on November 23. The other World Cup participants from the Frankfurt squad will not be able to make the flying visit to Japan either.

Meanwhile, Ridvan Yilmaz will not be part of the Eintracht squad.

The 21-year-old left-back has now joined the Frankfurt final opponents in the Europe League, Glasgow Rangers.

The Hessians had long sought the professional from Besiktas Istanbul.

But in the end, both clubs apparently could not agree on a transfer fee.

Now the Scots are said to have paid around five million euros for Yilmaz.

Eintracht has found a buyer for Ali Akman.

The 20-year-old attacking player is set to move to Galatasaray on loan.