Who is Said El Mala? Meet the teen wonder wanted by Europe’s elite

By the age of 14, Said El Mala was done with football. 

It was the summer of 2021 and the teenager, who had been at Borussia Mönchengladbach’s youth academy with his older brother Malek for four years, was told by the club’s development staff he wasn’t going to make the grade. El Mala was, they said, too small to prosper in the professional game. A childhood journey that had begun at Linner SV, a club in the west German city of Krefeld where he was born, and where his Lebanese father Mohammed once played, appeared to be over. 

But for the influence of Malek, who was also released but successfully persuaded his brother that they should continue playing, even if only for fun, it might have been a defining moment. Instead, it was merely a traumatic staging post on what El Mala has called a “rocky road” to the upper echelons of the game.      

“It wasn’t easy to process,” recalls the fleet-footed left winger, who now stands a mighty 6ft 2in. “Going from zero to 100 just like that. As a 14-year-old, you ask yourself: ‘What did I do wrong?’”

A defining moment

As his career trajectory since confirms, El Mala’s only mistake was failing to fill out more quickly. After leaving Gladbach, he spent a period playing alongside his brother for TSV Meerbusch, an amateur side in the fifth tier of the German league system. Then, in March 2023, came a real defining moment. El Mala sent a video of himself to Skillers, a Munich-based online platform that brands itself as “the voice of Generation Z” and is run by former German youth players.

A successful trial with Viktoria Köln of the German third tier followed, as did rapid promotion from the under-19s to the senior side and, in February 2024, a first professional contract. By then, both Said and Malek were attracting interest from Köln, who made their move that summer, circumnavigating a transfer ban prompted by the illegal signing of Slovenian teenager Jaka Cuber Potocnik by promptly loaning the brothers back to Viktoria Köln for the following campaign.

Now free to play for the club, El Mala has already made waves in the Bundesliga and, on Friday night, featured on Germany’s bench at the Stade de Luxembourg in Gasperich, from where his first senior national call-up would have afforded a decent view of Nick Woltemade’s second-half brace. If Pep Guardiola has his way, it may not be long before El Mala, who finds himself locking horns with the Newcastle United striker in the Premier League.

Manchester City are among a host of top European clubs, Bayern Munich, Barcelona and Paris Saint-Germain among them, who have been linked with a move for the forward. For a player who was plying his trade with Viktoria Köln of the German third tier only a few months ago, it has been a rapid rise; perhaps even a little too rapid.

‘He is humble and cheeky enough at the same time’

El Mala, whose first 10 games in the Bundesliga have already yielded four goals and two assists, remained an unused substitute in Friday night’s World Cup qualifier. He was subsequently shipped back to the under-21s by Nagelsmann, although that was neither a reflection of his character nor his ability. The Germany boss said the newcomer “made a good impression” and left open the possibility that El Mala could star in next summer’s World Cup.

“Said did well,” said Nagelsmann. “You always have to put things into perspective, because it was his first time with us and he didn’t have much training time here. He is humble and cheeky enough at the same time. 

“He needs to become a regular starter in Köln and have the ambition to address the areas for improvement that his club coach and I have pointed out. Then he will also have the opportunity to make an impact with the national team.”

A similar note of caution was sounded last month by an unnamed agent for the player, who told Cologne-based newspaper Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger the hype surrounding a potential move was wide of the mark. 

“Current reports that the player’s agents are meeting with Dortmund, Bayern, or clubs from England are incorrect,” said the source. “As things stand, there’s absolutely no reason to leave 1. FC Köln – neither this winter nor next summer. 

‘We’re consciously holding the reins together’

“There’s currently nothing to prevent Said from playing for Köln next season, especially since the club is developing very positively. Everyone knows that Said, if he continues to develop at this rate, will eventually take the next step. But he’s not going anywhere in the near future; he’s staying with FC Köln. We’re consciously holding the reins together.”

That is a laudable ambition, but it may also be a forlorn one. El Mala’s No 13 shirt is ubiquitous in the stands of the RheinEnergieStadion. Club manager Lukas Kwasniok has described the winger as “a street footballer with God-given talent”. And if Guardiola, who is said to have studied footage of the player and dispatched City scouts to Cologne to watch him, requires any further intelligence on El Mala’s ability to confound opposing defences, he can simply put in a call to former club captain Vincent Kompany, the Bayern Munich manager.

“This kid has this initial acceleration and then a second burst of speed,” Kompany said recently. “That surprises many defenders, and he can shoot when running at speed. That feeling of being inactive and then suddenly launching a full-scale counter-attack is, of course, a quality you can use throughout your entire career.”

Given his journey from Gladbach reject to Köln sensation, that image of relative inactivity followed by a burst of unbridled pace might equally serve as a neat summation of El Mala’s entire career.