Eintracht Frankfurt Seals Noah Atubolu Deal on Deadline Day

The saga dragged on right up to the final day of the transfer window, but it finally got done: Eintracht Frankfurt secured the services of Noah Atubolu, the German goalkeeper who just a few months ago was one of the breakout stars of the Europa League. And they did it on the very day the new Bundesliga season kicks off, with all eyes on matchday one.

The goalkeeper arrives from Freiburg in a deal structured as a loan, though in reality it's much more than that. It's a one-year loan that includes, as the Frankfurt club itself confirmed, "a purchase option that will automatically convert into a purchase obligation under certain conditions." In other words, Atubolu will play this year on loan, but everything is set up for him to end up an Eintracht player permanently.

For the deal to go through, there was one detail that couldn't be overlooked. Atubolu still had a year left on his contract with Freiburg, and it needed to be extended for the loan-with-mandatory-purchase mechanism to kick in. Without that extension, the goalkeeper could have walked away as a free agent next summer and signed with any club without Freiburg seeing a cent in return. That's how the German club explained it when confirming the move.

A Goodbye That Was Coming

Atubolu's story with Freiburg was no small thing. The goalkeeper was a key piece in the team's run to the Europa League final last season, a competition in which they fell to Aston Villa. In fact, that same Aston Villa had been strongly linked as a possible destination over the summer, once Atubolu made clear he wanted to leave Freiburg.

The exit had been coming for weeks. Freiburg had already moved to fill the void between the posts, signing German U21 goalkeeper Mio Backhaus from Werder Bremen as the natural replacement. While Atubolu's future was being sorted out, the club decided to leave him out of the squad for the season's first three fixtures, across the German Cup and the Conference League qualifying round.

Freiburg's sporting director, Jochen Saier, didn't hide how draining the whole process had been.

We've had some very difficult weeks and months behind us.Jochen Saier

With the transfer now wrapped up, there's no letup in the schedule. The Bundesliga kicks off this Friday with reigning champions Bayern Munich hosting Stuttgart. Eintracht Frankfurt, with Atubolu already part of the squad, will visit Union Berlin on Saturday, while Freiburg make their debut on Sunday against Werder Bremen, the very club Backhaus came from, the man chosen to fill the gap left by this move.