Omar Marmoush has emerged as Egypt’s other superstar forward. No player in the Bundesliga, not even Harry Kane, has been involved in more goals than the Eintracht Frankfurt man. Now, Manchester City appear keen to bring him to the Premier League.
At almost 26, it has been a spectacular rise. As recently as 2022, Marmoush was at struggling Stuttgart, loaned there by then parent club Wolfsburg. His fortunes have improved dramatically at Frankfurt, a club that have become experts in playing the market.
Speaking to Frankfurt’s sporting director Markus Krosche earlier this season, he was as sanguine as ever about the prospect of the club losing their biggest stars. “Selling players is part of my job. I am not emotional about it. It is business,” he told Sky Sports.
Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player
Sky Germany report ‘concrete negotiations’ are taking place with Man City over Marmoush
“I try to think of the player. They want titles. They want to play in the Premier League or Champions League. It is a normal process. There will be a point that the player develops faster than the club and then we let him go. Blocking their development is not good.
“This is what I tell all the players. If your development is faster than our development as a club, and I get the money I expect, I will let you go. This is why so many young talents like to come to Frankfurt because we know what we have to do to develop them.”
But, even by Frankfurt’s high standards, the example of Marmoush is extreme. Signed on a free transfer from Wolfsburg in the summer of 2023, he has been transformed into one of the best players in the Bundesliga, an all-round forward to rival the best in Europe.
That final year at Wolfsburg yielded five Bundesliga goals. He had never reached double figures for a league campaign until he pitched up at Frankfurt. But that tally of 12 goals in his debut season has already been eclipsed by the halfway stage of his second. He has 13.
Marmoush has been one of the outstanding players in the Bundesliga this season
If that is a testament to Frankfurt’s ability to identify talent, it is not to say that Marmoush’s rise has been totally unexpected. Michael Wimmer is a coach who worked closely with the player during his loan spell at Stuttgart in the 2021/22 season.
“I am not surprised by all this because I was convinced that Omar had huge potential,” Wimmer tells Sky Sports. “It was already clear he had a great future ahead of him. He knew exactly what he wanted and had the determination and the mindset to achieve it.”
Marmoush’s heat map and shot map for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga
Wimmer remembers Marmoush’s remarkable appetite for improvement, although not necessarily fondly. After training, he would insist on staying out to work on his finishing. “No matter what the weather conditions. Omar did not care if I was cold or soaked!”
That dedication to the detail mattered. Marmoush’s final game for Stuttgart was a crucial one for the club. They needed to win to stay in the Bundesliga and were chasing a late goal against Cologne. Marmoush came off the bench to help make it happen.
“It was the 92nd minute and Omar took the last corner of the game under maximum pressure,” recalls Wimmer. It was flicked on. “Right onto the head of Wataru [Endo]. It secured our place in the Bundesliga.” Stuttgart are now in the Champions League.
Wataru Endo scores the all-important goal for Stuttgart from Marmoush’s corner
Marmoush’s progress has been every bit as startling and Wimmer is magnanimous enough to credit Dino Toppmoller, the Frankfurt coach, for bringing out the best in the player. “The way that Frankfurt play football is good for Omar. It fits him perfectly.”
But part of what makes Marmoush such an attractive proposition is that not only is he capable of functioning in the team in a variety of different roles, he is someone who has the skillset to thrive whatever the idea of the coach and whatever the game situation.
“When Omar came to us, he was immediately accepted because everyone knew that he could and he would help us. He is someone who adapts quickly and that makes him suitable to many clubs because he is also very flexible and fits many styles of play.
Omar is the perfect attacking half-space player.
“For example, he can play against a low-block opponent because he has both the technical ability to solve one-against-one situations and the ability to find solutions in tight spaces. Thanks to his game understanding, he is a good combination player.
“But all clubs that play intense and attacking football suit Omar because he also has his qualities in transitional play, where he can then utilise the speed of his movement to the goal and his dynamic play. That is when these particular skills come into their own.
“And if a team often looks for the spaces in between to create numerical overloads in the half-spaces, then that is also perfect for him, because he has the orientation skills to turn at the right moment and solve situations with his dynamism and creativity.”
Marmoush’s positional evolution over the last three Bundesliga seasons
His flexibility is likely to be a factor in what makes him attractive to Manchester City, in particular. Their reliance on Erling Haaland has been such that he has started every single game for the club in the Premier League and the Champions League this season.
As a result, bringing in an out-and-out striker is of limited appeal because the risk would be that such a player is denied game time. What is required is someone with the potential to deputise for Haaland if required but also play in the same team as him as well.
That was the role that Julian Alvarez played for two seasons before moving on to Atletico Madrid in the summer. Marmoush can do it too. “In my opinion, Omar is very flexible and I think he can play in virtually all of the attacking positions,” says Wimmer.
“He has an enormous drive to score and he is very determined. He is very good one against one, very intelligent and makes the right decisions. He is very dynamic and fast as well as being technically outstanding. He looks mature and confident in all he does.”
Wimmer views Marmoush as “the perfect attacking half-space player or hanging striker, playing behind a target man” but caveats that by stressing it is two-and-a-half years now since he worked with him on a daily basis. “A lot happens to players in that time.”
In the case of Marmoush, that is particularly true. His evolution as a goalscorer is partly because Frankfurt have used him more centrally than before. Watching from afar, Wimmer has also detected other developments in his game, taking him to another level.
“For me, he has also fundamentally improved his defensive work so that he also works well for the team against the ball now,” he explains. “He has become a player who also brings enormous aggression and intensity to his pressing thanks to his dynamism.”
So impressive has his rise been that Wimmer regards a mid-season move as bitter-sweet. Frankfurt are flying high in the Bundesliga. Marmoush is only one goal behind Kane in the scoring charts. Nobody has more assists. The story does not seem complete.
“I believe that Eintracht can and will achieve a lot this season. I am really pleased with the path he has taken and will continue to go down on. That is why I personally would very much like to see him continue in Frankfurt or in the Bundesliga in general.”
Expect Krosche, a man with more of a say in the matter, to take a pragmatic view. Frankfurt are in a position to make an extraordinary profit on yet another signing they have helped develop into an extraordinary player. Man City could be the beneficiaries now.
