Jerome Onguene – The shy edge at Eintracht Frankfurt
Jerome Onguene, who came from Salzburg, is supposed to keep the Frankfurt defense tight. However, the 24-year-old needs match practice.
Frankfurt – Jerome Onguene, this newly signed defensive edge, didn’t really want to get out, maybe he was being polite or didn’t want to add fuel to the fire. If it hadn’t been so bad to admit to having scored a goal against Eintracht Frankfurt. At the official presentation of the brawny central defender from Cameroon, he fussed a bit, he had already played against Eintracht, “that must have been three years ago,” he, who speaks passable German, had interpreter Patrick Zeilmann translate. Not quite, it was, to be precise, on February 28, 2020, shortly before the pandemic paralyzed the game and away after a storm that swept over Salzburg: The Hessians met RB Salzburg in the intermediate round of the Europa League, Eintracht won the first leg 4-1 (and three goals from Daichi Kamada), in the second leg in the city of Mozart they drew 2-2 (and two goals from André Silva) – but the 2-1 lead for the Austrians was provided by Jerome Onguene , per header.
This 2019/2020 season was his most successful in Salzburg, the 1.87 meter man played 23 games, was a regular player, otherwise he was rarely used in Austria in the league, in the last round he played eleven games, including five in the Champions League. In 2022, however, he hardly played at all, he came up with 187 minutes, twice 90 minutes in the national team, seven minutes in the Austrian Bundesliga. In five years, the Brauseklub came up with 73 games and eleven goals.
Eintracht Frankfurt: A loud guy – on the pitch
In Frankfurt they think big about the “classic central defender”, as he combined himself. Sports director Markus Krösche, who presented him with a five-year contract until 2027, got enthusiastic about the commitment: “He’s definitely a warrior,” exclaimed Krösche, he would add “further substance” to the Frankfurt defensive and “be more flexible”. Onguene himself names his physical presence as his strength, and he is very different on the pitch than in real life. There, he says, he is a quiet representative, almost “a bit shy”, on the pitch the opposite, “I fight, I scream.” It doesn’t matter to him whether it’s a back three or four, he finds his way in every system. And so far he hasn’t noticed a big difference to Salzburg in terms of intensity in training.
In Salzburg, says the 24-year-old, he learned a lot, gained a lot of experience, and that’s where his career picked up momentum. There, in Austria, he took off. At the age of eleven he moved with his parents from Cameroon to Alsace, he played for AS Illzach Modenheim in his youth, he went through all French teams from the U16, then FC Sochaux, second French league. In January 2017, at the age of 19, he moved to VfB Stuttgart, but only made it into the reserve team, Regionalliga Südwest, even there he only made two appearances. In the summer he moves to Salzburg, with breaks at Farmteam FC Liefering and a loan to CFG Genoa. “The Jerome of Stuttgart can no longer be compared with the Jerome of today,” says Jerome. He now has 13 Champions League and eight European Cup games under his belt, and he also knows what to expect from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Jerome Onguene at Eintracht Frankfurt – Sergio Ramos as a great role model
The defender, who is strong in the air and tackles tackles, says Krösche, “would have had other options too”, after all he combines a lot of quality and he was also free to transfer. He has also been a Cameroon national team player since 2018, as he has both nationalities. And it was clear to him to choose Cameroon, “that was the only thing I wanted”. He played for France in his youth because “I grew up in France and received my football training”. But playing for Cameroon “was always on my mind”.
He played ten games for his country of birth, he also took part in the most recent Africa Cup of Nations, but he caught malaria there, which set him back a good five weeks and cost him appearances, including the two round of 16 games against Bayern in February this year Munich, in which Salzburg had conceded a swatter in the second leg, 1:7. But he has long been in full possession of his strength again.
At Eintracht Onguene will wear the jersey with the number four, the typical number of a stopper, the four also wears old master Sergio Ramos, the legend of Real Madrid, currently at Paris St. Germain, his role model. “He is a big idol of mine, he inspires me a lot.” He will need that because the back team is numerically strong, in Tuta, Almamy Touré, Makoto Hasebe, Aurelio Buta (who is not allowed to play this year) , Evan Ndicka, Hrovje Smolcic, Christopher Lenz, Timothy Chandler Onguene has strong competition. “It’s up to me to integrate myself quickly into the team,” he says. (Thomas Kilchenstein)