Move over Mohamed Salah - rising star Omar Marmoush emerges as Egypt's danger man

In-form Eintracht Frankfurt forward reports for international duty days after putting Bayern Munich to the sword

Omar Marmoush of Frankfurt celebrates after making it 3-3 during the Bundesliga match between Eintracht and Bayern Munich. AFP

One of the things that struck Vincent Kompany, the head coach of Bayern Munich, was the sheer strength of Omar Marmoush. Last Sunday in Frankfurt, Kompany had a very close view of it, Marmoush operating on the left wing for home team Eintracht as Kompany patrolled the adjacent technical area.

Kompany looked on, stunned, as the lean, lithe, Egyptian muscled his way past Bayern’s France international central defender, Dayot Upamecano, or ‘Upa’ to his colleagues. “It’s not normal,” Kompany remarked. “To push past Upa with [that sort of] strength? No one has done that before throughout the whole season.” From the Marmoush-Upa duel would quickly follow a second Eintracht goal, erasing Bayern’s earlier 1-0 lead.

Kompany had already listed other aspects of Marmoush’s performance in what turned out to be an engrossing, see-saw of a Bundesliga afternoon with six goals shared between leaders Bayern and the increasingly convincing challengers Eintracht and with one stand-out star. That was 25-year-old Marmoush, who on Friday takes his stellar club form into international service as Egypt meet Mauritania, in Africa Cup of Nations qualifying, in Cairo.

The other aspects that had struck Kompany forcefully, watching Marmoush live, had been the pace and the poise. “Sometimes he looks quite relaxed,” noted the Bayern coach. “Then he gets going and he’s really fast.”

Witness Marmoush’s opening goal, Eintracht’s first equaliser, for 1-1 against Kompany’s men, sprinting on to a pass and outpacing Joshua Kimmich. After that, it was all about, as Kompany saw it, “making the right decision at the end, the quality in his strike.”

It was clear-eyed, clinical. Kompany saw that again in the 94th minute of the contest, a feverish climax for almost everybody on the pitch and among the 58,000 in the stadium, but not apparently for the goalscorer, who again had run clear of his pursuers, and facing the imposing -Manuel Neuer, calmly lifted his shot over the Bayern goalkeeper for 3-3.

This club season has already seen plenty of what Kompany highlighted while lavishing praise on Marmoush, an opponent who had just cost Bayern two points. So flattering was Kompany’s assessment that it almost sounded like an invitation to Marmoush to think about joining Bayern at some point in the future was being prepared. “He has many great qualities,” enthused Kompany.

He has great stats, too. Eight goals from six games in Germany’s top division so far this term, averaging close to one every hour. His brace against Bayern was the third double he has registered in the Bundesliga. Across competitions, he’s contributed six assists, and, as with the pass he delivered after bouncing away from the rugged Upamecano, he has established a fruitful attacking partnership with teammate Hugo Ekitike.

He’s off the mark in Eintracht’s Europa League campaign, thanks to his winning and converting a penalty at Besiktas last week. And it takes real poise to keep a cool head and strike a spot-kick with the authority Marmoush showed facing up to the noise and whistles of a partisan Istanbul crowd.

Across the top five leagues in Europe, only Manchester City’s Erling Haaland and Barcelona’s Robert Lewandowski have netted more goals than Marmoush since mid-August, and as he touched down in Cairo for the matches – home Friday, and away next week – against Mauritania, Marmoush found himself in the unusual position of attracting as much attention as Mohamed Salah.

Marmoush has always looked up to Salah as an exemplar, and will note that he is the same age now as his hero was when Salah was making his first impact at Liverpool, adding exceptional skill as a finisher to his brilliance as a sprinter and dribbler.

At Frankfurt, who became Marmoush’s fourth Bundesliga employer last year, finessing the quality of his finishing has been a priority. Marmoush, adept at playing anywhere across the forward line, has always supplied goals to his club teams since he left Wadi Degla, scouted at 18, for Wolfsburg, but his confidence in pressure situations, one-on-ones, his readiness not to shoot too hastily, to take an extra touch has been a conspicuous feature of this run of scoring form.

“The fact that he then can face up to Manuel Neuer – twice – and finish the way he did against Bayern is obviously a nice thing for us to see,” noted Timmo Hardung, the Eintracht director of sport.

For Egypt, Marmoush has occasionally shown that poise across his 32 caps so far. There was the goal in Abidjan that kept a troubled Afcon campaign alive in January, when, with the Pharaohs trailing 1-0 against Ghana, having already dropped points in their opening group match and with Salah off the field injured and out of the tournament, Marmoush pounced on a stray Ghanaian pass, and, coolly rounding the goalkeeper, equalised.

Egypt would be eliminated in the tournament’s first knockout round, but Marmoush had played a critical part in avoiding an earlier, humiliating exit. And when he returned to Frankfurt, he was on the scoresheet in three successive fixtures.

A hint there of the momentum to come. Against Bayern at the weekend, Marmoush was playing his 50th game for Eintracht. He’s had 38 goal involvements in that half century of appearances, and scored at rate better than a goal every two outings. “He’s told me how appreciated he feels here by his team and the fans,” said Dino Toppmoller, the Eintracht head coach, “and that’s important for him to thrive.”

Hardung, the club’s sports director and Toppmuller, the coach, are now bracing themselves for hefty bids from more prestigious clubs for Marmoush should he continue to sweep through the best Bundesliga defences. There’s Bayern’s unconcealed admiration. There’s loose talk of Liverpool eyeing up Marmoush as a long term successor to 32-year-old Salah, whose Anfield contract expires next June.

There’s also a growing expectation that Egypt, losing finalists in two of the last four Afcons, might, with Salah and Marmoush attacking from right and left, be well set to go to the next Cup of Nations in Morocco in 14 months time with as potent and balanced a forward line as at any time in the Salah era. They’re both off the mark in qualifying, with a goal apiece so far and six points from the next two games would confirm Egypt’s ticket to those finals.