Hugo Ekitike is making his return but it is his replacement at Eintracht Frankfurt who goes into their Champions League game against Liverpool in top form. Jonathan Burkardt, the summer signing from Mainz, has six goals in his last six games.
Against Galatasaray in September, Burkardt became the first German player in over 30 years to score and assist on his Champions League debut and followed that up with another against Atletico Madrid. There were two more away to Freiburg at the weekend.
The 25-year-old striker looks like another shrewd acquisition by Frankfurt, a club renowned for their savvy recruitment. This one did not take as much finding. Burkardt was the fourth-highest scorer in the Bundesliga last season with 18 goals for Mainz.
It made him that club’s top scorer in a single season in their history, eclipsing the total of 15 scored by future Premier League winners Andre Schurrle and Shinji Okazaki. But Burkardt’s rise to the Germany national team has not been without its challenges.
This success appeared far from inevitable a few years ago. An injury to his knee suffered against Frankfurt of all teams in November 2022 derailed his progress. Burkardt had scored against his future employers that day. It was to be his last goal for 15 months.
The charismatic Bo Henriksen arrived at Mainz in February 2024 and changed everything, helping Burkardt to turn his career around. “When I came, he had played 100 Bundesliga games or something like that and scored 15 or 16 goals,” Henriksen tells Sky Sports.
The actual numbers are close – it was 16 in 96. Burkardt went on to score 24 goals in 40 Bundesliga games under Henriksen, part of a wild transformation for both the player and the team. “He made a crazy turnaround. It is incredible what he has done.”
Bo Henriksen helped Burkardt turn his career around at Mainz
How did it happen for him? “Everything is mentality,” says Henriksen. But playing to Burkardt’s strengths was crucial. The Danish coach puts it down to a conversation they had in which the player revealed that his desire was to take on a more central role in the team.
“I just talked to him. It is as simple as that. Listen, you have to talk to players. I asked him, ‘Where do you want to play?’ He always played in a 5-3-2 with two up front or he played in a 3-4-3 on the side. He wanted to play as a No 9, as a clear No 9.
“I said, ‘If you want to play as a clear No 9, why should we play you in a position that maybe only fits you 80 per cent? We have somebody else who can play in that other position. We need to see if we can make everybody play at 100 per cent’.” His trust was rewarded.
Burkardt made the move to Eintracht Frankfurt in the summer
Burkardt’s goals helped Mainz stay up in the spring of 2024. Having been nine points from safety with just 13 games to go, he scored eight goals in those games. The player then sustained his form to take Mainz to sixth, qualifying for Europe this season.
“We played a little bit more in the half space, a little bit more on the sides and it became easier for him to go into the box and get on the end of crosses,” explains Henriksen. There was another example of that at the weekend. “He is really, really good at running from deep.”
That is a style of play that suits Frankfurt too, Ekitike and Omar Marmoush both enjoying plenty of success on transition last season with 15 goals apiece. Burkardt’s work-rate is impressive and his combination of scoring goals and pressing high stood out last year.
After a brief period of adaptation, the signs are that he can perform a similar role at his new club, just a short trip east. “Everything in life is belief and he believes. He is also a fantastic leader. And that makes it even more fun to see the development he has made.”
Liverpool on Wednesday evening will be a bigger test, of course, but this is a player on the rise and with the target of a World Cup with Germany on the horizon too, do not be shocked if it is Burkardt, rather than Ekitike, who steals the show in Frankfurt this week.
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