1. FC Cologne
Market value increases enormously: New price tag for El Mala
October 14, 2025 – 3:05 p.mReading time: 2 minutes
Said El Mala is the most sought-after professional at 1. FC Köln and, according to the industry portal transfermarkt.de, now also the most valuable. This is how the market value of young players has developed.
Said El Mala is currently dedicating himself to the fight for European Championship qualification with the German U21 national team. After the disappointing 2-3 defeat against Greece, Antonio di Salvo’s team absolutely needs a win against Northern Ireland on Tuesday evening in order to maintain their chance of direct qualification for the Euro 2026.
The Cologne offensive player is the youngest player in the current U21 squad – no coincidence given his rapid rise: the 19-year-old has already scored two goals and provided an assist in just 214 Bundesliga minutes. Achievements that caused a stir. And now El Mala is not only one of the youngest, but also one of the most valuable players in the U21 team.
According to the market value update published on Tuesday afternoon by the transfermarkt.de portal, El Mala’s value is estimated at 18 million euros. This puts the FC youngster in second place behind Bayern’s Tom Bischof (30 million euros) together with Eindhoven’s Paul Wanner in the current U21 squad.
At 1. FC Köln, El Mala surpasses all his teammates with this new value. After his final move to FC last summer, his market value initially rose to three million euros. Now it is up by a dizzying 500 percent. In the entire Bundesliga, only three players increased even more: Lennart Karl and Yan Diomande (each from 1.5 to 20 million euros, i.e. +1233.33 percent) and Stuttgart’s Chema Andres (from 800,000 to ten million euros, i.e. +1150 percent).
Behind El Mala in second place at FC is Isak Johannesson, whose market value has increased by three million to ten million euros. Rav van den Berg also increased significantly – from 3.5 to eight million euros – and thus reached exactly the amount that Cologne had transferred to Middlesbrough FC in the summer.
Eric Martel (from six to eight million), Jakub Kaminski (from five to seven million), Jan Thielmann (from three to five million), Sebastian Sebulonsen (from 2.5 to four million), Joel Schmied (from two to 3.5 million), Marvin Schwäbe (from two to three million) and Fayssal Harchaoui (from 75,000 to 200,000 euros).
The update was less pleasant for three other FC professionals. After his third cruciate ligament tear, Luca Kilian’s market value fell from 400,000 to 100,000 euros. Jusuf Gazibegovic is now only valued at three million euros instead of four, and new signing Alessio Castro-Montes fell from five to 3.5 million euros.
Despite these losses, 1. FC Köln recorded a significant increase overall, mainly thanks to El Mala. The total market value of the FC squad rose from 77.45 to 106.27 million euros. This corresponds to a profit of 37.2 percent. No other Bundesliga team can keep up with that.