The miraculous return of Erik Durm

Frankfurt – It’s one of those crazy stories that football sometimes writes. More than a year ago, in the summer of 2019, Frankfurt Eintracht Erik Durm (28) brought back to the Bundesliga from the English Premier League relegated Huddersfield Town. The former national player, seven international matches, member of the 2014 World Cup squad, seemed the ideal “backup” for the two full-back positions. The former Dortmund had the reputation of being able to play right and left on the outside lanes without any differences in performance.
He had been given one or the other opportunity to impose himself last season, nine appearances, six from the start, were on the books, but he couldn’t really prevail. At the beginning of this season he was completely lost and played no role for coach Adi Hütter. On none of the first seven league game days and the cup game in Munich did he even make it into the 20-man squad. Others were given preference, first Danny da Costa, later Almamy Touré, also Timothy Chandler. The signals were clear, Durm already seemed to have his future at Eintracht behind him, although he has a contract until 2023.

Decisions by Hütter “respected but never accepted”

Then came the game against Leipzig and the miraculous turnaround. From the stands it went straight to the starting line-up. And Durm did his job properly. He played again in Berlin last Saturday and he will probably be first choice against his former club Borussia Dortmund next Saturday. “It would be a lie if I said it wasn’t a difficult time,” he looks back, “but it’s part of football. There are not only beautiful days, but also such days. ”His family has given him support and he has shown a lot of initiative. He “respected but never accepted the coach’s decisions.” During training, he always tried everything and never bury his head in the sand. “It was worth it, now I’m very, very happy,” he says.
His personal situation has changed fundamentally with the recent missions. He pushed aside thoughts of changing clubs that came up at short notice in the summer. “I didn’t sign here for four years to go out in winter,” he says. “Right now I feel very, very good,” he says. Physically, he is even better off than when he was in Dortmund. The reason for this is quite simple: “I’ve been injury-free for two years and can train continuously.” The long break in play meant that he lacked the rhythm, and the two test games against Würzburg and Nuremberg helped to remedy this deficiency. “One or two percent are still missing,” he admits, “if you have played five or six times, you have more security.”

BVB should feel dissatisfaction

The game against BVB would be his third in a row this season. He’s looking forward to it. He started his career in Dortmund, where he had his best time as a footballer. “That’s why this game is still special to me,” he says. Durm knows what is in store for him and his colleagues. “Borussia has an excellent team, both in the starting line-up and on the bench,” he says, “we have to prepare for a strong opponent in any case.” One small hope is “that they will still have one in the Champions League leave a few grains. “
But the Frankfurters don’t just want to focus on the opponent against the top team from Dortmund. After the recent negative experiences with sleepiness at the beginning and the positive experiences with the comeback qualities, the players want to touch their own nose. “It’s never nice when the opponent is 2-0 after five minutes,” says Erik Durm, “of course we talked about it, but the content stayed internal.” Dortmund should feel the dissatisfaction with the previous result . Durm: “We have room for improvement and look to the future positively,” he says, “we deserve to have more points in our account.”