Eintracht Frankfurt hoping to return Germany to the top destination for young American players

When the Union host German club Eintracht Frankfurt in an exhibition friendly on Saturday (5:30 p.m., no broadcast), it won’t just be an opportunity to welcome Paxten Aaronson back to Subaru Park.

It also will be an opportunity to remind local soccer fans that while the English Premier League is the world’s most famous circuit, Germany’s Bundesliga has been the top port of call for American players heading abroad for decades.

Aaronson is one of more than 70 who’ve done so, dating back to the 1960s. The list really started to grow in the 1990s, and from Eric Wynalda, it went on to others like Claudio Reyna, Landon Donovan, Kasey Keller, Michael Bradley, and Tyler Adams.

There have been many locals, too. Brenden Aaronson, Paxten’s older brother, spent the 2023-24 season with Union Berlin. In November of that season, the pair memorably got to play against each other for the first time in an official game.

Downingtown’s Zack Steffen spent the 2019-20 season with Fortuna Düsseldorf. Even though the goalkeeper missed half the campaign with an injury, he still played almost as many games there as he did in five years on Manchester City’s books. Lancaster’s Russell Canouse grew up at TSG Hoffenheim, and Hershey’s Christian Pulisic was launched to stardom by Borussia Dortmund.

The wave rises and falls, as happens with anything in sports. These days, it’s harder for German teams to attract U.S. players because of the Premier League’s fame and English teams’ increased interest in scouting Americans.

» READ MORE: Brenden and Paxten Aaronson still root for the Union, and want them to win a big trophy

But there remains plenty of interest, and Eintracht would like to be at the front of the line. Along with Aaronson, the club’s books include veteran right back Timothy Chandler, 22-year-old left back prospect Nathaniel Brown, and 18-year-old attacking midfield prospect Marvin Dills.

“There are so many young talents in the U.S. who have the chance, and Frankfurt is a good gate for them to come in,” Eintracht CEO Axel Hellmann said in an interview this week. “We know that it is absolutely important to grow in the U.S. market by the players’ testimonials, the [sight of] players, and I think we have good prerequisites to integrate them in the team.”

Sometimes, the sales pitch comes with a shot across the North Sea. While some big English clubs vacuum up young prospects and hope a few make it, German clubs sign Americans who they think will actually play.

Paxten Aaronson isn’t the best example of this, since Frankfurt has loaned him out twice so far, but that will be left behind if he stays this season. But there are many better ones, such as Joe Scally at Borussia Mönchengladbach and Kevin Paredes at VfL Wolfsburg. Even Gio Reyna, for all his problems, got plenty of opportunities at Dortmund before falling out of favor.

» READ MORE: As the USMNT’s last sprint for the World Cup nears, Zack Steffen showed his talents in his hometown

“We know that the Premier League, at the end, is what everybody is dreaming of because it’s the most prominent league in the world,” Hellmann said. “But there are only limited spaces for players to play all over the globe. Everybody wants to play for a Premier League team, and the Bundesliga is the best platform to go there because we have good education, from young players to the top.”

Eintracht Frankfurt also brings two other factors to the table. The first is the club’s six qualifications for European competitions in the last seven years, including a Europa League title in 2022. This coming season, the club will be in the Champions League for the second time in four years.

The second is that if you do well there, you will get scouted by even bigger European clubs — and perhaps bought for a large amount of money. Over the last three years, Eintracht has banked a staggering $432 million in transfer fees, including mega-sales of Randal Kolo Muani to Paris Saint-Germain for $108 million, Omar Marmoush to Manchester City for $85 million, and this summer Hugo Ekitiké to Liverpool for $91 million plus incentives.

“It’s a good story,” Hellmann said, “and I was surprised that almost everybody who’s into soccer really followed our transfer results.”

» READ MORE: Zack Steffen’s advice for Cavan Sullivan, from a former Manchester City player to a future one

That includes people in charge of American clubs who’d love to know the secret to turning such huge profits. Seven years since the Vancouver Whitecaps woke up the rest of MLS by selling homegrown left back Alphonso Davies to Bayern Munich for $13.5 million, that sum has been topped just eight times and just once by another true homegrown, FC Dallas’ Ricardo Pepi in 2022.

Even the Union, who’ve banked more than $35 million in transfer revenue since the start of 2021, have yet to do a single sale that big.

“It’s not that easy,” Hellmann said. “I mean, you know everybody is focusing directly on the coach, and Markus Krösche as the sporting director, etc., But there are so many other parts in that picture, in the puzzle, that have to really work and function like a perfect machine so that players can make that step.”

Marmoush, for example, wasn’t always the striker he is now. Aaronson arrived as an attacking midfielder who can fill in as a winger or even center-forward, and now excels in a deeper role.

» READ MORE: How a former Philly community newspaper editor became an agent of change in global soccer

“That is what we can do,” Hellmann said. “ We just work on details — mentally, technically, tactically with the players — to make them as best as possible. And then at the end, if we do that work properly and in a good way, of course the economic benefit from it.”

He believes the time will come for MLS, especially as teams here keep developing more and better players.

“In business terms, the soccer players’ market is a global market, and it’s a totally transparent market driven by agents,” he said. “The agents follow like bees to honey, and if there is a honeypot in the U.S. for example — if they would establish a system that allows value creating by those kind of transfer machines in the clubs — all the agents would go. That is what everybody believes will happen one day, because we know the economic power which is behind professional sports [here].”

Hellmann argued that MLS adopting promotion and relegation would put a big charge into things. But he also knows that’s a hot potato the league doesn’t want to touch.

“That’s why I mentioned it,” he said, noting discussions he had with second-division Louisville City when Eintracht trained there before coming here. “Everything starts with a process of thinking, ‘I need to avoid relegation. I have to invest. I’ll buy a player, one more for the squad, etc.’ So that is what we have in Europe, what keeps the system running to a maximum extent.”

» READ MORE: MLS pushes a calendar flip down the road, but perhaps not for much longer

That said, Eintracht is not waiting until then to move. The club does a lot of scouting over here and has kept a keen eye on the Union’s academy. It tried to sign highly touted 16-year-old striker prospect Malik Jakupovic before he turned pro, but the Union convinced him to sign here in May so they can cash in down the road. (He has since scored six goals in five games for the Union’s reserves, sending his stock even higher.)

This year, Philadelphia and Frankfurt are celebrating 10 years as sister cities, a relationship that spans well beyond soccer. The way things are going, the sport could become an ever-greater part of that bond in the future.

“As a young player to start a long-term career, it is very good that you have, for a certain time, Germany as a good stage to present yourself for much higher ground,” Hellmann said. “We’re talking about one of the top four [leagues] in Europe — where you can earn good money, by the way. And you have good club brands, you have good structures, you have a close relationship to fans and people, and you learn the business.”

It sounds like hype, but generations of Americans have proved it’s the truth.