Vincent Kompany, Rudi Völler, and Timmo Hardung wax lyrical about the rise of Can Uzun | OneFootball

German-Turkish attacking phenom Can Uzun hasn’t exactly been able to live up to the lofty expectations set for him this past week. One can hardly fault the young Eintracht Frankfurt professional for being human after all. A 19-year-old cannot literally score in every last game. At the same time, however, one can hardly fault those watching Uzun thus far this season for anticipating that he might.

After garnering an assist in Eintracht’s opening round Pokal victory, Uzun set a new club record in Eintracht’s Bundesliga opener. No 19-year-old SGE player had ever recorded three scorer points in a single game. Uzun parlayed his goal and two assists against Werder Bremen into a “scorched earth” start to his season in general, scoring a goal in five straight matches on-the-spin.

The streak at long last came to an end in Tuesday’s Champions League defeat to Athletico Madrid. Uzun then obviously didn’t get his name on the scoresheet in Bayern Munich’s blanking of his team in the match-day six Bundesliga Saturday evening “Top-Spiel“. A pair of less successful games still doesn’t diminish Uzun’s accomplishments: Six goals and four assists in nine matches across all competitions.

Both Bayern head coach Vincent Kompany and DFB director Rudi Völler had their chances to register comments about Uzun this week. Völler – with some degree of wistfulness – spoke on his inability to get the Regensburg-native to represent Germany. Kompany noted that Uzun’s rise renders the departure of so many big names from the Bundesliga this summer irrelevant.

SGE sporting director Timmo Hardung also spoke on Uzun on last Sunday’s “Doppelpass” roundtable discussion. The Eintracht personnel executive spoke on the importance of staggering development for young talents like Uzun whilst discussing the player’s first season with Eintracht.

“We tried [to recruit him],” Völler remarked at the Premier of his new documentary film “Rudi Völler – Es gibt nur einen“. “In the end, we accepted his decision [to represent Turkey] after a lovely conversation with his father and agent. Seeing him have such a successful career now, I have to admit,  brings a little tear to my eye. Because that’s exactly what we hoped for. He’s a wonderful footballer.“

“[Can is] a very good example of what development means and how long it sometimes takes in terms of time and patience,” Hardung added on “Doppelpass“. “He came from the 2. Bundesliga [1. FC Nürnberg] and that was taken into account.The road is far from over, but we can now see what he is capable of.“

“We’ve lost many top players in the Bundesliga,” Kompany noted with a wink when asked about Can at his Friday pre-match press conference. “But that also makes room for a new generation of top players.“

GGFN | Peter Weis