Evangelos Marinakis should feel very happy with his recent transfer business but the Nottingham Forest owner must wince every time he hears the name of Manchester City‘s next £50million striker.
Forest’s technical director George Syrianos has excellent links in German football and Omar Marmoush was high on his list of Bundesliga targets last summer. Forest were proposing a package of a little more than £20m and ultimately did not take the final step to buy him from Eintracht Frankfurt.
Head coach Nuno Espirito Santo likes to work with a tight squad and, at the end of last summer, it is thought he told Marinakis there was no need to add.
With Forest joint-second in the table, and their main striker Chris Wood in the form of his life, it is unfair to say they made a mistake – and their interest in Marmoush shows their scouting system is working well. Yet with the 25-year-old now close to joining the Premier League champions for nearly triple what Forest agreed, staff could be forgiven for feeling a pang of remorse.
An Egyptian attacker with quick feet to match his speed over the ground and a flair for the spectacular. Remind you of anyone? Marmoush calls Mohamed Salah ‘a big brother’ and while the Liverpool forward is impressed, he warns against drawing parallels.
‘I see Marmoush as a great player with a lot of talent,’ Salah has said. ‘We have to stay away from comparisons so that everything goes better for him.
Man City are progressing in discussions to sign Frankfurt star Omar Marmoush for £50million
Pep Guardiola wants to strengthen his squad this month after a difficult first half of the season
Marmoush has previously described Egypt teammate Mohamed Salah as ‘a big brother’
‘People must stop comparing Marmoush to me. He is starting his journey, and I have achieved a lot in my career. This puts him under a lot of pressure, and I am sure he does not like it. Let him enjoy his journey and his success.’
It will be fascinating to see where Marmoush is used for his next club, especially given a certain Norwegian already in place at the Etihad Stadium. Though two up front is relatively rare in the Pep Guardiola-led tactical world, Marmoush and strike partner Hugo Ekitike have dovetailed brilliantly for Eintracht this term, sharing 20 goals and 11 assists.
Whereas 22-year-old Frenchman Ekitike prefers to operate centrally, Marmoush roams all over the place. He is a mean set-piece taker, too, scoring direct from a free-kick in three games in a row in November. Among other players to manage that are Lionel Messi (twice) and Alessandro del Piero.
While Messi and Del Piero broke into first-team football young and had immediate success, Marmoush has had a trickier journey.
Wolfsburg signed him from Egyptian club Wadi Degla in 2017 and the move simply never took off. Apart from a reasonable season on loan in the second tier with St Pauli, Marmoush struggled, and spent a large chunk of his time with Wolfsburg’s B team in the German fourth tier. Until joining Frankfurt in 2023, Marmoush had eight goals in 62 Bundesliga appearances. He even left on a free transfer.
What we do not know is whether Marmoush’s form in Frankfurt, scoring 25 goals in 44 league games and only one goal behind Harry Kane in this season’s Bundesliga Golden Boot race, will prove an outlier.
The club have an impressive record of developing forwards, with Luka Jovic, Sebastien Haller and Randal Kolo Muani earning big-money moves to Real Madrid, West Ham and Paris Saint-Germain respectively thanks to their displays for Eintracht. The German side banked a total of £166m for those three players.
Yet Jovic and Kolo Muani have struggled desperately to recapture the Eintracht magic elsewhere. Perhaps Eintracht is such a perfect home for forwards that some feel lost when they leave. Ekitike, who is mobile and links play cleverly, is the perfect partner for Marmoush. Would he have a similar relationship with Erling Haaland?
Marmoush is second in the Bundesliga goal scoring charts behind only England’s Harry Kane
Nuno Espirito Santo’s Nottingham Forest came close to landing the Frankfurt forward
Then there are Marmoush’s numbers this season. More than four shots per 90 minutes is good going, with two of them on average finding the target. His conversion rate – scoring nearly 20 per cent of his shots – is nearly identical to that of Kane.
But is it sustainable? Marmoush has 13 goals this term from an xG (expected goals) figure of 7.5. That indicates a player on a hot streak whose fortunes may change – as are his career numbers prior to joining Eintracht.
‘Omar has a very good shooting technique,’ insists Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krosche. ‘That’s the result of hard training and the self-confidence you need. He’s also found a rhythm.’
But Marmoush is not just about the goals. He has seven assists this term, has created an average of six chances per game and dribbled into the box nearly four times per match.
Even though he turns 26 in February, Marmoush has completed 90 minutes less than 100 times in his career, so he does not have too many miles on the clock.
Every big transfer is a gamble, even for a club like City, and perhaps especially so given their struggles this season. Part of that comes from a lack of goalscorers in the forward line – Haaland has 16 in the Premier League but after that, City’s top marksmen are left back Josko Gvardiol (four) and deep-lying midfielder Mateo Kovacic (three).
Marmoush’s raw talent has been apparent since he was at Cairo’s American School. ‘It’s like his foot always knew the way to the goal,’ said teacher Ahmed Elagroudy. ‘These skills were obvious, plus his outstanding speed on the pitch.’
His mental strength is obvious, too. It would have been easy for Marmoush – who speaks English fluently – to disappear without trace after failing to make an impact during his early years in Germany. He managed to overcome those difficulties, which is an encouraging sign for the future.
£50million could prove to be money well spent by the league champions on Marmoush
Marmoush could form a formidable partnership in attack with Man City talisman Erling Haaland
‘It was not an easy step to leave my family and friends and move to Germany,’ Marmoush has admitted. ‘I didn’t know the language, didn’t know the food – everything. But I always had this dream to become a professional footballer.’
He has long since fulfilled that ambition and, at 25, is mature enough to accept a challenge like City.
Salah was also 25 when he joined Liverpool from Roma, and he now sits fourth in their all-time goalscorers. If Marmoush can be anywhere near as good as his compatriot, that £50m will be money very well spent.
