It has been known for some time, but now it is official: After 304 competitive matches and 24,606 minutes of competitive play for Eintracht Frankfurt, Makoto Hasebe is moving. Not the club, but from defense to the sidelines: The Asian with the most Bundesliga games of all time (384) will stay with the Eagles and will be Dennis Schmitt’s assistant coach in the new U21 coaching team for the 2024/25 season alongside Arber Mustafa and Dennis Merten (focus on analysis). This will be the first time that the 2018 DFB Cup winner and 2022 UEFA Europa League winner has taken on a coaching position, but Hasebe is not breaking new ground. The 114-time Japanese international took his first steps in coaching during his active career. At the end of 2021, he successfully took part in the DFB ‘Players Pathway’ project, as part of which he coached the then U15 team at Riederwald, among others. The 40-year-old now holds the B+ license. Hasebe, who was named Asia’s international footballer of the year in 2018, will start his duties on September 1st and will bring his experience from almost 700 competitive matches as a professional to Eintracht’s oldest training team.
Alexander Richter, head of the youth performance center: “We are very, very proud to have won Makoto as a coach for our youth performance center. He has shown great interest in starting his coaching career with Eintracht Frankfurt’s youth team. We are very happy to accompany him on this path and will try to develop him further in this new role. In the first few meetings, Makoto was very friendly and open and we are sure that our boys can benefit as much as possible from his extensive experience.”
Makoto Hasebe: “I am of course looking forward to the new challenge and am very grateful to Eintracht for giving me this opportunity. I am also incredibly happy to be able to continue working at this club. I was a professional footballer for 23 years and have gained a lot of experience during that time, but the job of a coach is completely different. First of all, I need to gain as much experience as possible in my new position and develop myself step by step.”
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