Official | Elversberg sign 2. Bundesliga’s leading goalscorer Noel Futkeu on loan | OneFootball

SV Elversberg have officially completed the reported signing of Eintracht Frankfurt striker Noel Futkeu on a season-long loan with a purchase option. Sport Bild reports the newly promoted Bundesliga club will pay approximately €1m for the initial loan. Elversberg can then make the move permanent for a further €6m next summer. The agreement comes only months after Frankfurt exercised a reported €1.3m buyback option to bring Futkeu back from Greuther Fürth this summer.

The 23-year-old returns to Eintracht only briefly after an outstanding campaign in Fürth. Futkeu finished as the 2. Bundesliga’s leading scorer with 19 league goals, including a decisive final-day strike against Fortuna Düsseldorf. Frankfurt nevertheless had no plans to integrate the former Germany youth international into Adi Hütter’s first-team squad. Elversberg instead provide Futkeu with the opportunity to make his Bundesliga breakthrough.

Noel Futkeu: “The next step I absolutely wanted”

“After the past two years in Fürth, moving to the Bundesliga is the next step that I absolutely wanted to take,” Futkeu said in Elversberg’s official announcement. “I quickly realised during the talks that the club’s ideas and mine fit together very well. Now I want to integrate into the team quickly and do my part to ensure that we have a successful season together.”

“With Noel, we have succeeded in signing an attacker with a proven goalscoring instinct who has demonstrated his qualities at every level in recent years,” SVE sporting director Christian Weber added.  “He possesses excellent finishing ability, makes decisions very quickly inside the penalty area and works extremely well for the team off the ball.”

Futkeu scored 30 2. Bundesliga goals during his two seasons with Fürth after previously registering 16 goals in 26 Regionalliga Südwest appearances for Eintracht’s reserves. The Essen-born striker has yet to make his Bundesliga debut, having featured only once for Frankfurt’s senior side in the DFB-Pokal.

That should now change at Elversberg, where Futkeu will wear the No. 9 shirt and arrive as one of the club’s most valuable attacking assets. 

GGFN | Peter Weis