Bundesliga
The unstoppable rise of Eintracht's Can Uzun
Can Uzun is one of those players who appears to have been born to play at the highest level, and at Eintracht Frankfurt of late, the 19-year-old Turk is shining brightly as the world watches on.
Dino Toppmöller’s team are riding high in the Bundesliga standings and are back amogst the elite in the UEFA Champions League too. That the Eagles are doing so with one of the most exciting young sides on the continent is all the more impressive.
With his hard-work ethic, unrestrained talent and eagerness to succeed, Uzun encapsulates the team in which he plays. With the numbers now adding up to 10 goal involvements in all competitions already, it is becoming almost impossible for head coach Toppmöller to imagine an Eintracht starting XI without him.
Five of those involvements have been scored by Uzun himself, and in consecutive games too. That run makes him only the fourth teenager this century to score in five matches in a row across Europe's top five leagues per UEFA coefficient, after Borussia Dortmund pair Julian Brandt (2015/16), Jadon Sancho (2019/20) and Karim Benzema for Real Madrid (2007/08).
Watch: Uzun's goals and assists this season
"He sets very high standards for himself, which I like. He has incredible talent," Toppmöller said of his talented young star, with Uzun’s teammate Mario Götze adding, “Can is top-class technically and has enormous talent. If he keeps at it, does things well, stays fit, he has huge potential.”
Uzun knows, too, he can deliver on the regular, as he's shown with his spectacular five goal-burst at the start of this season. That streak began in Die Adler’s Matchday 1 win over Werder Bremen, with the Türkiye international's long-range rocket getting the ball rolling in a 4-1 romp. With five goals and three assists in Germany’s top tier alone, Uzun is displaying his importance to an Eintracht side that could yet challenge right at the top of the division.
The versatile, Regensburg-born attacker once summed up his on-field preferences in the following way: “I prefer to play in the left half-space, as a number 10 or an 8, but if the coach puts me somewhere else, then of course I will fulfil those tasks.”
Watch: U-zun bet he Can!
Indeed, what’s happening on the pitch now is all an extension of a phenomenal few years at Nuremberg. Prior to his move to Frankfurt, Uzun lit up the second division with the team nicknamed Der Club to the tune of 16 goals and two assists in 30 Bundesliga 2 games in 2023/24. No 18-year-old had ever previously managed such a haul in Germany’s second tier.
Just as impressive were Uzun’s achievements of becoming Nuremberg’s youngest-ever scorer at 17, before then replacing Germany footballing legend Olaf Thon as the youngest player in the DFB Cup to score a hat-trick in that competition.
There appears an ease with which Uzun operates on the pitch and in how he has managed to glide so impressively to the top of his craft. Yet as the player himself told Hessenschau.de at the start of this season, “I've worked hard for this my whole life; I see it as confirmation of these years of work.”
The Eintracht No.42 has increasingly become one of the players fans at the Deutsche Bank Park are excited to see. It’s a prospect that fuels Uzun’s desire to improve and one that adds further confidence to a young player who arrived in Frankfurt with immense belief in his own abilities.
“I think I had a good year in Nuremberg,” the teenager explained. “I don't mind the hype and want to give something back, especially to the fans; I want to live up to these high expectations. I came [to Frankfurt] to play as much as possible,” he said.
After the high-profile departure of Hugo Ekitiké this summer, Eintracht bolstered their squad with the arrivals of Jonathan Burkardt and Ritsu Dōan. Both players have been quick to settle into their new surroundings, and develop their understanding with Uzun. Dōan has assisted two of his five league goals, while Uzun has provided for former Mainz man Burkardt against Borussia Mönchengladbach and Galatasary.
Watch: Uzun, Frankfurt's dashing young star
A high-profile game against Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich on Saturday gives Uzun & Co. another chance to show off their attacking talents in front of their home support, and could see them close the gap on the Bavarian giants to three points, were they to pull off a victory.
Highlighting his abilities at the beginning of the campaign, Uzun said, “I see myself as an instinctive footballer; I do whatever comes to mind on the pitch. Put simply, I have a good nose for a chance.”
In the past, it was a Bayern player who many chose to compare Uzun with when trying to describe the Türkiye international’s exciting raw talent. Yet the former Jahn Regensburg youth never cared much for such comparisons, insisting: “I don't want to be the next [Jamal] Musiala; I want to be the first Can Uzun.”
The high praise doesn't stop there for him, with German footballing legend Rudi Völler also piling on the compliments when asked about the Frankfurt star's decision to represent Türkiye over Germany:
"We tried it. It was a wonderful conversation with his father and his agent, but in the end you have to accept it" explained DFB's sporting director."
"The fact that he's now having such a career as we see on television week after week – I do have a little tear in my eye," said Völler on his early season exploits. "That's exactly what we hoped for. He's a wonderful footballer."