MDiant Ramaj is very familiar with the mountain air. Before he joined Eintracht last summer, he stood between the posts for 1. FC Heidenheim. At the club that has the highest stadium in German professional football. At exactly 555 meters is the home ground of the Ostalb men, for whom Ramaj has played 42 goals in his two years in the U19s. And because the Stuttgart-born German-Kosovar soccer player did this particularly well, the former Heidenheim professional goalkeeper Jan Zimmermann didn’t hesitate for a second to guide him to Eintracht.
Zimmermann is the goalkeeping coach in Frankfurt, and when the transfer was complete, Zimmermann was full of praise. “I have always followed Diant’s journey closely. With him we were able to win over a very viable, young German national player who, despite being only 19, has been training at professional level for two years and has already gained international experience with the DFB juniors. We are sure that Diant can take the next steps with us one league higher.”
Ramaj is now 20 – and he has now taken the next, decisive step. January 16, 2022: The young keeper will not forget this date. It was the day when he was supposed to guard the Frankfurt goal for Kevin Trapp, who had failed due to the corona virus – and how. After the 1: 1 his bosses were full of praise. Coach Oliver Glasner attested to Ramaj a “great performance. He was bold and present.”
Glasner spoke of a possible fault at the Augsburg goal when Michael Gregoritsch shot the ball into the near corner. Shortly before the Augsburg Arena was closed at 7 p.m. and the reporters had to leave the venue, Sport Director Markus Krösche jumped to the side of the Eintracht coach and explained: “At the goal, which was annoying, Diant wanted to prevent the cross pass. That’s what we want: courageous goalkeepers.”
Ramaj is a brave goalkeeper. Self-confident and determined, he went about his work from the start. His good football training, which Zimmermann refined and improved in many training sessions, immediately caught the eye. Because just like top dog Trapp, Ramaj is also on both feet in action. Tees and free shots with the left or right – no problem for the man who really enjoyed the mountain air in Heidenheim and was now able to show some of his skills in the top German league.
Top marks in added time
The fact that a goalkeeper who was just 20 years old was doing his job on his debut on Sunday only became evident when the unfortunate equalizer was scored (38th minute of the game). Ultimately, however, the positive impressions conveyed by Ramaj prevailed. Especially in the final phase of the five-minute stoppage time, he earned top marks when he helped Eintracht secure a draw in dire need. Glasner spoke of a “best safe”. Krösche added: “We knew that he had quality and was not afraid. He’s a very confident goalkeeper. That helped him today.”
Krösche also noticed in the rather deserted arena, because there were almost no spectators, that Ramaj went into the game completely fearless. When the day’s work was done and at least one point was won thanks to Daichi Kamada’s opening goal (22nd), the Frankfurt official was delighted with Ramaj’s premiere. “He has charisma, he has presence on the flanks. He played along well and read many things often. He made a really good game.” Krösche found the style of his first-class debut work “extraordinary. After all, he was thrown in at the deep end.”
Jan Zimmermann had no concerns that his young goalkeeper would stand up to the test. “You never noticed that it was his first Bundesliga game,” said the Eintracht goalkeeper, who is 16 years his senior. “As a goalkeeping coach, I’m happy for him, he exuded confidence with the many crosses and was able to help the team with his save in the end.” It remains to be seen whether Diant Ramaj will also help Eintracht with courage and self-confidence on Friday evening against Bielefeld. It is currently not foreseeable whether Trapp and Kostic will be operational again in time. “Unfortunately, we have to live with such corona failures,” said Krösche. “But so must the others. We hope the two go back negative as soon as possible.”
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