Holland’s Eindhoven Dagblad reports that PSV Eindhoven are interested in signing French fullback Niels Nkounkou away from Eintracht Frankfurt. The 24-year-old showed flashes of brilliance for Eintracht during the 2023/24 Bundesliga campaign, but made only 12 league appearances last season. Nkounkou’s fellow under-utilized SGE defensive colleague Aurèle Amenda is also being linked with a move away from the RheinMain metropolis.
Nkounkou scored three league goals and garnered three assists in 29 league appearances for Frankfurt during the 2023/24 season. The back-to-back matches in which he recorded his three assists (on matchday 16 against Borussia Mönchengladbach and matchday 17 against RB Leipzig) earned him special accolades. Some German press sources compared him to legendary Eintracht “assist-meister” Filip Kostic.
It nevertheless soon became apparent that the parallels to Kostic were premature. After scoring a goal on matchday 18 against Darmstadt, Nkounkou’s performances began to dip. The Frenchman had to serve a suspension after getting ejected on double yellows against Köln on matchday 20. He would henceforth feature in Dino Toppmöller’s starting XI sporadically and only got his name on the scoresheet one more time.
On four occasions last year, Toppmöller didn’t even select Nkounkou for his matchday squad in the league. General disciplinary issues were cited. Nkounkou’s three cup and eight Europa League appearances proved underwhelming. The player’s estimated market value plummeted from €7.5m to €3.5m in the last twelve months.
In a recent interview with Sport Bild, Toppmöller again reiterated that he would like to see more consistency and effort from Nkounkou after more ups-and-downs in pre-season. While a misplaced pass led to a goal against Aston Villa (2-2), he also scored twice against Louisville City FC.
According to the Dutch report, PSV would like to sign the 24-year-old on loan with an option to buy. Nkounkou remains under contract with Eintracht until 2028.
GGFN | Peter Weis
