Eintracht oldie Makoto Hasebe: "World class, unbelievable, exceptionally good"

Harry Kane will have to make up his mind this coming summer.

The Tottenham Hotspur Football Club star striker is once again faced with the decision of whether to leave the club he has been playing for since 2004 or whether

a monument will be erected in front of the imposing new stadium in north-east London as a

.

So far, Kane has only played for Tottenham in professional football.

In summer 2023 he will celebrate his 30th birthday.

A year later his contract in London expires.

The clock is ticking for Kane if he actually wants to make another career change.

Tobias Rabe

Responsible editor for Sport Online.

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With a move to Munich, for example.

In the renaissance of the centre-forward, a real number nine is now in great demand again.

After the departure of Robert Lewandowski, FC Bayern thought it would work without this type.

That works sometimes, but not always.

And so the makers in Munich should also think about whether this Harry Edward Kane would not be one for them.

There is no question that the striker has the format for Bayern.

The fact that German football also has the format for a Harry Kane became apparent on Tuesday evening.

Kane appeared with Tottenham on the third day of the group stage at Eintracht Frankfurt and struggled to put himself in the limelight when it was 0-0.

There were various reasons for this.

With Antonio Conte, the Spurs have an Italian coach who prefers to play defensively.

In Heung-min Son, Kane has a partner with whom he actually gets on really well, who, in Spurs' best offensive scene, played the pass to the free-standing Kane sharply at chest level, so that the scorer stumbled into the goal but the ball sailed wide.

The ball somehow never got where Kane wanted it to go.

"Exceptionally good performance"

And then there was this one player with the opponent that Kane will never forget: Makoto Hasebe.

The Japanese is 38 years old.

When he first played in the Bundesliga in early 2008, Kane was hoping for a scholarship at Tottenham's youth academy, which he got the following year.

Kane has long been a world star, was the top scorer at the 2018 World Cup and should soon be the English record scorer in the national team.

But he also found his master in Hasebe on Tuesday.

"World class, unbelievable, an exceptionally good performance," said coach Oliver Glasner.

If you want to see the full spectrum of Hasebe's class, you can't just look at him when the ball is nearby.

If he has it on his foot, the calm that he radiates is immediately noticeable.

If the opponent has the ball at their feet, Hasebe is not far and disrupts with all his skill.

The fact that someone like Kane is faster, bigger, bigger and younger is not a decisive advantage.

Hasebe is smarter, more alert, calmer, and farsighted.

The duels won with Kane caused extra applause and a murmur in the audience, as did the clever passes to teammates.

But Hasebe can do even more.

Not only Sebastian Rode, at almost 32 years old one of the most experienced at Eintracht, has observed Hasebe's charisma on the sometimes much younger teammates.

"He gives Evan N'Dicka and Tuta the rest they need," Rode said.

In fact, it is striking how the left and right defenders benefit from the middle man of the back three.

At the beginning of the season, when Hasebe mostly sat on the bench, the two defensive specialists had some disorientation and hectic in their game.

With Hasebe by her side, calm has returned.

And success.

In the past four games, Frankfurt have not conceded a goal three times.

This record is closely linked to Hasebe.

After the 1-0 draw against Wolfsburg in the Bundesliga, the Japanese started in the Champions League in Marseille.

The 1-0 in France was followed by a 3-1 in Stuttgart and a 2-0 against Union in the Bundesliga and now the 0-0 against Tottenham.

Having only played a good half an hour in all previous games, Hasebe was on the pitch for over 90 minutes in each of these four games and shone.

"You can't get out of the songs of praise for him anymore," said Rode.

"He did a great job, excellent, an absolute bench for us."

It was also a great pleasure for goalkeeper Kevin Trapp to have Hasebe in front of him.

"Since he's been playing again, he's given the team an incredible amount of security." After all, his main opponent was Kane, "but Hasebe had him totally under control and played it very intelligently." He knew exactly "when to cover and when he better stays behind.”

This is one of the reasons why the offensive around Kane, Son and Richarlison only had one shot on goal at the Frankfurt goal.

It was a deflected shot by Kane that Trapp easily caught in the 81st minute.

National coach Hansi Flick in the stands should not be angry that Hasebe is not a German opponent at the World Cup opener against Japan, since he ended his career in the national team in 2018.

After half the games, the Eintracht group is incredibly exciting.

Sporting Lisbon are six points ahead, followed by Frankfurt and Tottenham on four, while Olympique Marseille have three.

Eintracht will play in London next Wednesday (9 p.m. in the FAZ live ticker for the Champions League and on DAZN).

The self-confidence is great.

It's going abroad in Europe.

Late at night, Rode, Trapp and Glasner recalled the Europa League successes of the past season.

At that time there were victories in Seville, Barcelona and West Ham, most recently in Marseille.

So why not at Tottenham?

A good reason for this is called: Makoto Hasebe.