Omar Marmoush: The New Egyptian Sensation Keeping Pace With Mohamed Salah

The Bundesliga has a new breakout star. Omar Marmoush is not exactly an overnight success, but the Eintracht Frankfurt forward is a name you’ll likely have to remember.

There’s an Egyptian forward putting up incredible numbers in one of Europe’s top five leagues this season, and no, it isn’t Mohamed Salah.

Well, it is Salah too, as we wrote about earlier this week, but as Yoda said in The Empire Strikes Back, there is another.

Omar Marmoush has started the 2024-25 campaign on fire, recording 11 goals and seven assists in 10 Bundesliga games for Eintracht Frankfurt, and 14 goals and 10 assists in all competitions.

In fact, with his assist for Hugo Ekitiké in Eintracht’s 3-2 win on Sunday, Marmoush became just the second player from Europe’s top five leagues to reach double figures for both goals and assists in all competitions this season. It came less than 24 hours after compatriot Salah became the first to do so.

While to some outside of Germany it may seem like Marmoush has come from nowhere to become one of the most potent attackers in Europe, but that wouldn’t be entirely fair. He recorded a respectable 12 goals and six assists in 29 Bundesliga games last season, and added another five goals in 12 games in all other competitions.

However, as happened with last season’s breakout star in Germany’s top flight, Serhou Guirassy, then of Stuttgart, Marmoush has stepped it up a level (or several) this year, which very few will have anticipated.

We highlighted him as a player to watch ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations earlier this year, where he was one of just four Egypt players to score before they were eliminated by DR Congo in the last 16. Marmoush started just two of the Pharaohs’ four games in the tournament, scoring in their 2-2 group-stage draw with Ghana.

Marmoush arrived in Frankfurt on a free transfer in 2023 from Wolfsburg, where he didn’t exactly have a record that suggested a star was about to be born. He scored six goals in 48 games (18 starts) for Wolfsburg in four seasons, though he did also have loan spells with St. Pauli in the 2. Bundesliga, scoring seven times in 21 games (19 starts) in 2020-21, and at Stuttgart in the top flight, netting three goals in 21 appearances (19 starts) in 2021-22.

However, Marmoush has positively thrived in Frankfurt. He joined just after the departure of Oliver Glasner – now at Crystal Palace – but has worked well with Glasner’s replacement, Dino Toppmöller, especially this season.

In all competitions, only Harry Kane can match Marmoush’s 24 goal involvements from players in Europe’s top five leagues, while the Eintracht star stands alone when considering just league games. His 18 goal involvements is ahead of Kane (16), Robert Lewandowski (16), Salah (14) and Mateo Retegui (14).

His finishing has been arguably the most impressive in Europe, with his 11 goals coming from just 5.5 expected goals (xG), meaning he has scored exactly twice as many goals as he should have. His overperformance of 5.5 is comfortably greater than any other player in Europe’s big five leagues, ahead of Mason Greenwood (4.5) and Bryan Mbeumo (4.1).

One reason for Marmoush’s impressive overperformance of his xG is his set-piece prowess. He bent another free-kick into the net on Saturday in Eintracht’s win at Stuttgart, making it three games in a row in which he had scored directly from a set-piece. He became the first player from Europe’s top five leagues since Lionel Messi for Barcelona in 2019 to score from a direct free-kick in three consecutive competitive matches.

In fact, no other player from Europe’s top five leagues has scored more than one free-kick this season in all competitions, while Marmoush has those three to his name.

Marmoush often wins his own free-kicks, too. A very tricky player to mark or dispossess, he’s won 37 free-kicks this season, more than any other forward across Europe’s top five leagues.

His overall shot-conversion rate this season stands at 26.8% in the Bundesliga, with his previous best in a league campaign being 15.2% last season. It’s a big ask to keep that potency up throughout a whole season, but he could end 2024-25 with some remarkable numbers if so.

Marmoush is more than just finishing, though. He is dangerous whenever he gets on the ball, willing to carry the ball and create chances for others. Last season, Bayern Munich’s Leroy Sané (511) and Hoffenheim’s Andrej Kramaric (348) were the only forwards to total more carries (moving at least 5m with the ball) in the Bundesliga than Marmoush (323). Only the same two players recorded more than his 17 chance-creating carries, while just Sané and Freiburg’s Eren Dinkçi carried the ball further in total than him. RB Leipzig’s Loïs Openda and Hoffenheim’s Maximilian Beier were the only two to have more shots following a carry.

If that wasn’t impressive enough, as with his scoring, Marmoush has stepped it up this season. No forward has made as many as his 126 carries in the Bundesliga, none have had as many as his 16 shot-ending carries (six ahead of the next most, Openda), and only Borussia Mönchengladbach’s Tim Kleindienst (seven) has totalled more carries ending in a chance created than his six.

The latter point is also reflected in his general game, as only seven players have laid on more than his 22 chances for teammates.

A lot of those opportunities have been for strike partner Ekitiké. In fact, five of Ekitiké’s nine goals this season have come courtesy of a Marmoush assist.

Interestingly, despite his increase in goals, Marmoush has been playing fewer minutes as a striker this season than he did last term. In 2023-24, 85% of his minutes came as a striker, while in 2024-25 he has played 68% of the time up front, with 11% as a central attacking midfielder and the remaining 21% on the left.

He’s still getting into dangerous areas, though, as clearly shown by his remarkable output.

As night follows day, Marmoush’s form has led to links with the biggest clubs in Europe. Bayern Munich are reportedly eyeing him up, while Liverpool have also been credited with an interest. It is quite the thought that Marmoush could link up with his Egypt teammate and captain Salah at club level.

One thing that potential suitors will need to consider, though, is that Marmoush is thriving in a team managed by Toppmöller whose style doesn’t exactly match that of most big clubs.

As Adam Barnish pointed out in his piece on Eintracht Frankfurt last month, they do things differently to many other successful teams; namely often ceding possession – they have averaged just 43.1% of the ball in Bundesliga games this season, with only five teams averaging less. They are adaptable though, at least. For example, in their last two games they had 64.8% possession against Bochum and 39.6% against Stuttgart.

Either way, Marmoush finds a way to be influential, whoever the opponent. He grabbed a goal and two assists in Eintracht’s 5-1 hammering of Bayern last season, and also scored twice against the Rekordmeister in their 3-3 draw earlier this campaign. In fact, the only Bundesliga team he has scored as many goals against as Bayern since the start of last season is his former club Wolfsburg.

Marmoush also throws up some interesting results in Opta’s Player Comparison tool, which looks at the output of almost 2,300 players from Europe’s top five leagues over the past 10 years. While it doesn’t measure all metrics, those it does include suggest his performances in 2024-25 match most similarly to three of Salah’s best seasons at Liverpool, as well as Messi’s 2014-15 campaign. Not bad company, we’re sure you’ll agree.

It’s too early to say whether Marmoush is the real deal or if this is just a purple patch, but Europe’s biggest clubs are apparently taking notice, and his could be a name that we’ll all have to remember over the next few years.

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