Hasebe joins U21 coaching staff | OneFootball

Following on from his playing career, the 40-year-old is taking on his first coaching job and joining the U21 staff.

What has been an open secret for a while has now been made official. After 304 matches and 24,606 minutes out on the pitch for Eintracht Frankfurt, Makoto Hasebe is taking on a new challenge – not with a different club, but on the touchline. The Japanese midfielder, who holds the record for the most Bundesliga appearances of all time for an Asian player (384), is staying with the Eagles and will join analysis experts Arber Mustafa and Dennis Merten as an assistant coach of Dennis Schmitt in the new U21 coaching staff.

This will be the first coaching position that the 2018 DFB Cup- and 2022 UEFA Europa League-winner has held, but it will not be unfamiliar territory. During his playing career, which saw him win 114 caps for Japan, Hasebe was already working on moving into the training sphere.

“I’m obviously delighted about this new challenge and am very grateful to Eintracht for giving me this chance,” said Hasebe. “I’m also incredibly pleased to able to carry on working with this club. I played professional football for 23 years, and during this time I acquired a lot of experience, but coaching is a very different proposition. The first task for me is to get as much experience as possible in my new position and progress step by step.”