Six years after moving to the Bundesliga, Omar Marmoush is cementing his reputation as one of the league’s emerging talents.
The opening goal, and a pair of assists, in Eintracht Frankfurt’s seismic 5-1 victory over Bayern Munich just before the Bundesliga’s winter break will have caught the attention before a likely trip to the African Cup of Nations for the striker.
Marmoush moved to Germany from the Wadi Degla club, in his native Egypt, in 2017, finally making his Wolfsburg senior team debut three years later. Quick, mobile and with the ability to play across the front line, his performances drew admirers in Germany and abroad.
But much like another prolific African in the Bundesliga, Serhou Guirassy, Marmoush struggled to make a consistent impact, moving on loan to St Pauli and Stuttgart without quite delivering on his potential. But Frankfurt, who have forged a deserved reputation for talent spotting, had seen enough.
Fast start at Frankfurt
“In Omar Marmoush we have signed a player whose abilities will give our attack even greater flexibility,” said Eintracht’s board member for sport Markus Krösche when he signed the frontman on a free transfer ahead of the 2023-24 season. “Omar has already proven his qualities in the Bundesliga, but at the same time he still has great potential to develop further.”
Krösche was quickly proved right, with six goals in Marmoush’s first 10 Bundesliga games and four in five in the Europa Conference League. But a starring performance against Germany’s perma-champions Bayern will elevate Marmoush’s status to the next level.
“The goals that are coming for him at the moment are only a reward for the hard work he puts in for us,” Marmoush’s coach Dino Toppmöller said earlier in the season. “Because of his speed, he always has moments that are uncomfortable for a defender when he makes that deep run.
“But he now also has a feeling for getting into dangerous areas again and again and helping us with his footballing technique,” he added.
AFCON heartbreak and second chance
Frankfurt will likely have to do without that dangerous combination of work rate and technique soon, with Marmoush likely to be named in the Egypt squad for the Africa Cup of Nations in January.
The 24-year-old started Egypt’s defeat on penalties to Senegal in last year’s final and forms part of a frontline that revolves around Liverpool star Mohamed Salah. The pair have been in touch since before Marmoush found his feet in Germany.
“We’re in touch. The contact between the Egyptian players in Europe is very good,” Marmoush told the St. Pauli website when he was on loan there in 2021. “We try to support each other because we know it isn’t easy to make the transition to Europe.”
It may not be easy, but Marmoush is increasingly making it look so. He’s not got a bad role model to follow.
Edited by: Michael da Silva
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