Ex-DFB Junior Franke: Would Have Been Ready For The Bundesliga-With Thun On Promotion Course

Once at Leipzig & Wolfsburg

Dominik Franke once played for Germany at the U19 European Championship and cost VfL Wolfsburg a transfer fee of 750,000 euros. The 26-year-old was not used in the Bundesliga and yet he established himself as a professional. Franke is currently at the Swiss second division club FC Thun and continues to dream of the German football upper house.

“At the European Championship I felt that I did it. I thought to myself: I was one of the best talents in Germany, I travel through Europe for games and tournaments and can represent my country, ”says Franke in an interview with a transfer market about his time as an 18-year-old. At that time, the German U19 squad included today’s Bundesliga professionals such as Ridle Baku, Robin Hack, Jeff Chabot and David.

In 2017 Franke was at his training association RB Leipzig and regular player in the second team, which was dissolved in the summer of that year. The red bulls had just ended their first season in the Bundesliga and the left -back sat five times with the professionals on the bench.

The Riesaer native spent six years in Leipzig before it moved to VfL Wolfsburg after the U19 European Championship (for the German juniors and Franke played two out of three games). He says of the transfer paid for him: “I didn’t really notice it. Rather, I was happy that such a club came to me. ” No other German talent up to 18 years old was so expensive that summer and in Wolfsburg’s professional team he was the only trained left -back. He should recommend himself for higher tasks through the second team.

However, the door was closed to the professionals because the team was in a sporting crisis. In the pre -season, the class was secured in the relegation against Eintracht Braunschweig and in 2017/18 Wolfsburg had to keep up against Holstein Kiel. “I can understand that a young talent is not thrown into the cold water and a player with more experience receives preference,” says Franke. In the role of the observer, he was able to see how things are going on in the Bundesliga, and he was allowed to sit on the bench four times in two seasons.

Franke was able to learn a lot and gain experience. He mainly looks at the processes and tension on a match day. The defender is certain that he would have been ready for the Bundesliga. He was able to keep up in training. But he believes that he would have become nervous if the coach had told him that he could play. “I think that’s normal,” says Franke with a smile.

My biggest goal is the Bundesliga.

Franke stood 60 times on the field for Wolfsburg’s second team. With a loan to SV Wehen Wiesbaden in the 2019/20 season, his time at VfL ended for the time being and one year and eleven missions in the 2nd league later – he moved to FC Ingolstadt. To date, the FCI is the club for which it played most frequently: 86 times. “It went well for me because I played a lot. But for the club it was up and down with the promotion to the 2nd league and the descent to the 3rd division, ”says Franke.

After three years at the FCI and a short time without a club, Franke hired the Swiss second division club FC Thun in October 2023. There has been a struggle for promotion for a seasons for a seasons. The club is currently second in the table. In addition to Franke, Captain Marco Bürki, brother of ex-Bundesliga keeper Roman Bürki, and former HSV professional Vasilije Janjicic are among the squad. After the missed promotion in the relegation against the Grasshoppers last summer, it is said to fold the return to the upper house this season after five years. “I want to climb the club. Everyone has this goal here, ”emphasizes Franke, who is placed on the left.

For him, the time in Switzerland is “worth an experience. I was able to take a different step in my career with Thun and discover abroad. It is not wrong to have this in the résumé. I feel very comfortable here and have a great time. ” His contract expires in summer, but under certain conditions it is extended by another year. When an ascent, games wave to him for the first time in a first division.

“I am in favor of always thinking big. And my biggest goal is the Bundesliga. Since childhood it has been my dream to play there or in another top league. I want to make it one day and I have to go step by step, ”says Franke. As a professional footballer, he lives his dream, he was grateful for “doing what I am doing”.