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Randal Kolo Muani does not leave Eintracht Frankfurt

Photo: Axel Kohring / Beautiful Sports / IMAGO

The transfer of Eintracht Frankfurt's striking star striker Randal Kolo Muani to Paris Saint-Germain has fallen through. The Bundesliga club was unable to agree on a transfer with the French record champions on Friday.

Kolo Muani, who recently wanted to force the move to his homeland with a training strike, will therefore continue to play for the Hessians. The 24-year-old's contract with Eintracht, which does not include a release clause, runs until the summer of 2027.

In the end, the deal did not fail because of the transfer fee of 100 million euros demanded by Frankfurt – even though PSG had only recently offered around 90 million euros. Rather, the reason was that Hugo Ekitiké, who was planned as a replacement for Kolo Muani, was not signed.

Eintracht must reintegrate Kolo Muani into the team

The transfer fee of 35 million euros called for by Paris was simply too high for Eintracht, and the 21-year-old would have blown up the salary structure of the Conference League participant with an annual gross salary of allegedly around eight million euros. Since both sides did not come to an agreement on Ekitiké and no other striker could be signed at short notice, the Frankfurt team ended the negotiations after intensive talks.

The Eintracht officials now want to reintegrate Kolo Muani, who had already been in Paris in recent days, back into the squad as soon as possible. "I'm not going to break the baton on him just because he made that mistake," said coach Dino Toppmöller, appealing: "We shouldn't infer his character because of his misconduct, which is absolutely not okay with the group. He is a young person. Everyone makes mistakes.«

Palhinha change fails in the last few metres

The transfer period ended similarly frustrating for FC Bayern Munich. The record champions were in agreement with Portuguese international João Palhinha about a move. The 28-year-old had already passed the medical check in Munich and was on his way to the photo shoot for the transfer announcement when the deal with Palhinha's parent club Fulham FC fell through.

"We're trying to complement and strengthen our team. It seems to come down to a last-minute decision," said coach Thomas Tuchel on Friday a few hours before the transfer deadline – and sounded very confident at the time.

By the deadline of 18 p.m., however, FC Bayern was unable to announce any completion. According to »Sky« and »Kicker«, there was no green light from Fulham, which did not find a Palhinha replacement at short notice. The 28-year-old should have become Tuchel's much-desired defensive midfielder in the Munich squad and cost FC Bayern more than 50 million euros.

After the departures of Benjamin Pavard (Inter Milan) and Josip Stanišić (on loan to Leverkusen), Bayern were also looking for a defensive player who could defend on the right wing and inside. "That's a big gap there," Tuchel said. One candidate should be national player Armel Bella-Kotchap from Southampton FC.

Gravenberch ahead of Liverpool transfer

Tuchel said goodbye to Dutch international Ryan Gravenberch in the press conference for the Gladbach game. The 21-year-old midfielder was on the verge of a move to Liverpool FC. The "main problem" in Munich for the player was that there is no offensive eighth position in Bayern's playing system, says Tuchel. Ryan sees the 4-3-3 in Liverpool as an opportunity to fight for his place."

Gravenberch arrived from Ajax Amsterdam a year ago for €18.5 million and is now set to move to England for more than double the price. Gravenberch is a "nice guy" and a "hard-working, talented player," Tuchel said. However, he had "struggled" with his unsatisfactory reserve role at the record champions.

cev/dpa