Actually, Mo Dahoud was already out. At Eintracht, he no longer played a role in the summer, he was no longer part of the plans – all these common phrases applied to him one hundred percent.
This became particularly clear when the plane with the Frankfurt team took off for the training camp in the USA last summer – without Dahoud. He didn’t get a ticket and was released to hold talks with other clubs.
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All the other players who fell victim to the squad reduction in the summer quickly found new employers.
Dahoud, however – well, things went quiet around him. And it stayed quiet. He didn’t find a new club, missed the training camp, but was back in Hesse for the season opener. Did he feel like an unwanted son-in-law at a family dinner? We can only speculate.
He never showed his feelings outwardly. On the contrary. According to Eintracht coach Toppmöller, Dahoud never let himself go, wanted to persevere, and was “always there for the team.” As if he had sensed that his chance would still come.
Crisis as an Opportunity?
Because with the clear signal of farewell that the club bosses sent to Dahoud last summer, they hadn’t accounted for the crisis their club would find itself in just before the winter break.
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On one hand, there’s the injury list, which keeps getting longer and longer. In addition to Jonathan Burkardt’s absence, the injuries of Oscar Højlund and Michy Batshuayi have recently arrived as bad news in the Main metropolis.
On the other hand, the club, which was hyped as Bayern’s main challenger in the summer, is really struggling on the pitch.
Defensively, 29 goals conceded in 13 games speak for themselves – you won’t find a worse defense in the league. But even before that, things aren’t going well – the offense is partly injured, partly completely out of form. An example: Elye Wahi, who misses more chances from a few meters than he collects as a scorer.
📸 Maja Hitij – 2025 Getty Images
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Slowly but Steadily…
Dahoud, on the other hand, slowly but surely stepped back into the spotlight. At first, it was only enough for two brief appearances. In the 1-0 home win against Mainz just over a month ago, the 29-year-old was on the tactics board for the first time in almost a calendar year, not on the sidelines with the bench candidates, but in the starting eleven.
The midfielder, born in Syria, didn’t play like a star, but the 79-minute appearance was of immense importance to him. He said after the game, “For a footballer, there’s nothing better than being back on the pitch and winning together with the team.”
📸 KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV – AFP or licensors
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He was also in the starting lineup for the 4-3 victory against promoted Köln, delivered a solid performance, and even scored a goal. In the draw against Wolfsburg, he was at least substituted in, and he “got to” experience the 0-6 thrashing in Leipzig from the start, while at Camp Nou he came off the bench. Excluding the total failure of Eintracht in Leipzig, Dahoud has nevertheless played his way back into the team.
Will Dahoud Become the Face of the Turnaround?
This could continue – and maybe even get better. The midfielder might even become a symbol of Frankfurt’s turnaround.
How can this succeed? Dahoud needs to bring his qualities on the ball back to the fore. He doesn’t necessarily bring speed, but he does bring a lot of ball security and game understanding to calm games that threaten to slip away. In attack, his clever passes into the final third come into play. Calmness and precision instead of high speed.
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If he returns to his top form, he can help. Dahoud has rarely found himself on the sidelines.
Overall, he has already played in 189 Bundesliga games, 33 times in the Champions League, and shone especially at BVB with his qualities in ball possession and build-up play. These footballing skills even briefly earned him a nomination for the German national team under Joachim Löw – albeit very briefly, but still.
The absence of Skhiri and Chaibi, who will travel to the Africa Cup, doesn’t improve the personnel situation in Eintracht’s midfield, but probably does for Dahoud personally. After all, both had often been preferred over him recently.
Dahoud is considered a veteran and is still in the prime of his footballing career. His qualities, combined with the ambition to prove his impact once again, and the situation at Eintracht, give him more than good chances to secure his place in the Frankfurt team until after the winter break – and ideally become one of the faces of the turnaround on the Main. Now it depends on how well he plays these cards.
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What do you think – could Mo Dahoud become important in the coming weeks? Or is the belief not enough, and do Krösche & Co. need to come up with something else for the midfield in the winter transfer window? Feel free to write it in the comments!
This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇩🇪 here.
📸 Alex Bierens de Haan – 2025 UEFA
