Following in the footsteps of Nacho (Ignacio Ferri Julià), who has already made four appearances in the Bundesliga and two in the UEFA Europa Conference League, Elias Baum became the next homegrown player to make his first-team debut in the group match at HJK Helsinki on 9 November – an achievement that had been a while in the making.
A year ago: dipping his toe in the waters in Japan
The Frankfurt-born talent first featured in the first-team squad exactly a year ago, on Eintracht Frankfurt’s tour of Japan during the winter break. Baum watched the first match against Urawa Red Diamonds on 16 November 2022 from the bench, but three days later against Gamba Osaka in Suita, the versatile wide man saw half an hour of action.
2022/23: rising through the ranks
Baum moved to the Eintracht academy from FC 1957 Marxheim in 2015 and made his way through all the Eagles’ youth teams. The 18-year-old has been named in Dino Toppmöller’s squad for all four Europa Conference League fixtures so far this season.
A month ago: senior debut
It therefore came as no surprise when the club announced Baum’s first professional contract on 26 October 2023. “Elias has come on in leaps and bounds, particularly in recent months,” explained sporting director Timmo Hardung. “He appears very experienced for his age, is very calm on the ball, very composed defensively and very brave and active in attack. We like that.” That was exactly one month ago.
Back in September, Toppmöller had said of Baum, who was regularly invited to train with the first team at Deutsche Bank Park: “He’s an extremely hungry player and a good lad. I don’t want to promise too much, but I can easily see him playing for us this season.”
Debut against Helsinki
His time ended up coming a week ago, with the full-back coming on for Niels Nkounkou in the 89thminute of the game against HJK. “It was just a matter of time before Elias got a runout,” said Toppmöller on Baum, who became Eintracht’s sixth-youngest debutant in this millennium at the age of 18 years and 14 days. “He’s a really good lad who listens and works hard. We won the game and qualified from the group – it’s a day he won’t forget.”
Baum himself says that he just wants to keep “working hard and learning a lot from the pros, because that helps in my development”.
