Before the eagerly awaited Rhine derby between Borussia Mönchengladbach and 1. FC Köln next Saturday (from 6:30 p.m.), a lot is centered around a returnee: Said El Mala is the big starter at 1. FC Köln and is now returning to his training center in Gladbach.
Around Borussia Mönchengladbach, a teenager has long since become a symbol of missed opportunities: Said El Mala. Although the Krefeld native went through Gladbach’s youth ranks for several years, it wasn’t enough for him to make his big breakthrough as a professional footballer. He only achieved this last year at Viktoria Köln in the third division and then at 1. FC Köln.
At Effzeh he has long since become the new shooting star with his four goals in seven Bundesliga games and is currently the most accurate joker in the German football upper house. With his six direct goals in just 347 Bundesliga minutes, the 19-year-old even has better stats than club icon Lukas Podolski in his early days in 2003 (three goals in nine games back then).
El Mala’s meteoric rise has long made him a shooting star in the cathedral city, while those in Gladbach’s youth department are wondering how such a great talent could have fallen through the cracks.
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El Mala already impressed at the U19 European Championships
El Mala was sorted out of the U15 foals in 2021. From there he went via TSV Meerbusch to Viktoria Köln, where he made his debut in the 3rd league as a 17-year-old under head coach Olaf Janßen. This summer, Viktoria moved on to his city neighbor in Müngersdorf, who had signed him for 350,000 euros in 2024 and then loaned him out to Viktoria for another year.
But why didn’t the whiz kid make his breakthrough at Borussia Mönchengladbach back then? His U15 coach at the time, Sven Schuchardt, now explained to “Bild”: “Said was still very small at the time, which made him extremely inferior to his opponents athletically and not competitive at this level. Some boys simply need a little more time to develop.”
Time that Gladbach no longer gave him. Nevertheless, El Mala managed to become a Bundesliga professional. His development spurt has been gigantic over the past two years. He scored four times for Germany at the recent U19 European Championship and was one of the tournament’s top scorers.