Soccer’s Fastest-Growing Market Is the One for Ideas

Credit...John W. TomacMarkus Krösche’s first summer in his new job was a frenetic one. Within a couple of months of taking up his post as Eintracht Frankfurt’s sporting director, he found himself with not only a manager to replace but a couple of star players, too.

Krösche, 41, hired from RB Leipzig, got to work. He hired Oliver Glasner as coach. He completed a complicated deal to sign Rafael Santos Borré, a Colombian forward, from the Argentine club River Plate, and acquired two young wingers to complement him. In total, he brought in 11 players that summer, and sold or loaned out a dozen more.

The acquisition that may prove his most significant, though, passed by almost unnoticed. Quietly,…