I still braked on Friday
©IMAGO
Cologne coach Lukas Kwasniok expects to say goodbye to shooting star Said El Mala in the medium term. “We’re not kidding ourselves. If he continues to score like this and adds the aspects that are important in the Bundesliga to the highlights, we’ll have to give him up at an unbelievably expensive price. That will happen at some point, that’s okay,” said the coach, who had criticized the too-quick reporting about his youngster on Friday, after the 1-1 (0-0) draw against Augsburg.
“But I have the feeling that he really has FC in his heart at the moment and is enjoying the phase here and we are enjoying it too,” added Kwasniok. With his third goal of the season, substitute El Mala secured the point for the promoted team. Kwasniok initially left the 19-year-old on the bench because he had recently returned slightly injured after two intensive U21 appearances.
On Friday, Kwasniok criticized the reporting surrounding FC Bayern’s alleged interest. “Such behavior is simply not okay for me. No journalist has to fear consequences for such an assertion, but how is such a young player supposed to process it?” Actually, there are “no issues at all” surrounding El Mala, they are simply artificially exaggerated.”
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Now he said: “I can’t and don’t want to keep the hype down. We know about his abilities. He’s an absolute highlight player. But there’s still a world of difference between a highlight player and a good Bundesliga player,” said Kwasniok, emphasizing that Jakub Kaminski is currently even more valuable for the team. It is important to bring El Mala to this level.
“That’s the nice thing that he and those around him understand that. It’s no use just setting highlights but not helping the team overall,” emphasized Kwasniok. El Mala had recently scored the 1-0 winning goal on his starting eleven debut in Hoffenheim after a dream solo and that was not the only reason why he caught the attention of other clubs.