“We have signed a player whose abilities will give our attack even greater flexibility,” Eintracht Frankfurt CEO Markus Krösche announced in the summer of 2023, sitting side by side with the club’s new arrival: Egypt international forward Omar Marmoush. “Omar has already proven his qualities in the German Bundesliga, but at the same time he still has great potential to develop further. We’re pleased that we were able to bring such an exciting and talented player to Eintracht Frankfurt on a free transfer.”
It reads like the most generic club statement you’ll see. But you can forgive Eintracht for rolling out some stock phrasing, as they’d just signed a 24-year-old on a free transfer from VfL Wolfsburg who had spent two of the past three seasons on loan, with the other seeing him make more sub appearances than starts. So expectations were surely not much any higher than normal.
Eighteen months on, whatever those expectations were, Marmoush has surpassed them and then some. With 27 Bundesliga goals and 15 assists across 1½ seasons at Eintracht, plus a handful more of each in Europe, the forward reveled in the spotlight and leads the league for goal contributions this season, outpacing megastars such as Bayern Munich‘s Harry Kane and Bayer Leverkusen‘s Florian Wirtz.
Naturally, that form sparked host of interest from club in the January transfer window, but Manchester City swooped in first, parting with €60 million ($62.1m) to make him the face of their midseason rebuild.
But what paved the way for Marmoush’s late rise to stardom?
Coaches couldn’t figure him out
Marmoush’s incredible ability was always recognised in Germany. The problem was, no one quite understood how to harness it.
“He was always considered an outstanding talent, but one that needed a lot of polishing,” ESPN’s Bundesliga correspondent Constantin Eckner says. “He was a gifted baller, a street footballer, so coaches had a hard time figuring out how to use him correctly.”
That much was clear in the way Wolfsburg brought him off the bench (26) more times than they started him (15) over four separate seasons. They also sent him out on loan twice, to St. Pauli and then Stuttgart, during that time too. “Wolfsburg did not handle Marmoush correctly, in my opinion,” Eckner says. “Because of these loan spells, he never had time to establish himself anywhere.”
ESPN Africa correspondent Ed Dove agrees, pointing to the sheer number of different systems, positions and instructions he received during that time.
“There are possible parallels with Ademola Lookman [now of Atalanta] at this point,” he says. “You have a guy who is highly regarded, has shown quality in flashes, but he’s played for three different clubs in three different divisions in the space of just over two years.”
Things looked like they would fall into place for Marmoush in 2021-22, during his loan at Stuttgart, as he rose above several disruptions (including a foot injury and Africa Cup of Nations duty) to be named on the short list for the Bundesliga Rookie of the Year award. But after he arrived back at Wolfsburg the following season, friction between him and coach Niko Kovač derailed their campaign.
“Marmoush and Kovač did not always see eye to eye,” says Dove. “Kovač once brought him on as a half-time substitute against Bochum only to sub him off again 19 minutes later, citing unhappiness with his defensive work rate. Once it became clear that Marmoush wouldn’t be extending his contract at Wolfsburg, Kovač effectively phased him out.”
So, at 24, Marmoush became a free agent in the summer of 2023. He’d shown flashes of his exceptional talent and potential since 2020, but a topsy-turvy couple of years and a rocky relationship with Kovač had diminished his stock at just the wrong time and he was forced to rebuild his career.
