When Paxten Aaronson signed with Eintracht Frankfurt, the club made it clear they weren’t expecting much from the teenager this season.
“We’ve got a very clear plan for how we want to gradually and carefully build him up,” said Timmo Hardung, head of first team football at Eintracht. “And part of that is he’s coming to us in January to start getting used to everything here so that ideally he’s ready to hit the ground running in the new season.”
Things had pretty much been going according to that plan in Aaronson’s debut half season, as he made just two brief cameos before this weekend’s game against Borussia Mönchengladbach.
But with Eintracht down a goal in the second half, head coach Oliver Glasner opted to hand the 19-year-old his first extended opportunity as he replaced Rafael Borré on 55 minutes.
The returns, early as they may be, were promising.
The younger Aaronson’s first real taste of Bundesliga minutes leads off this week’s Five.