A year ago the regional league in Giessen, now the move to Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga: The story of Younes Ebnoutalib is a real football fairy tale.
After 19 games played, FC Gießen is currently eighth in the Hessenliga, a rather mixed interim conclusion for the regional league relegated team. Mirco Geißler has 12 goals in midfield, but things are lacking in attack, and one can assume that the Gießen team would have one or two points and several goals more in the table if they hadn’t made what was probably the most spectacular transfer in their club’s history in January 2025. At that time, Younes Ebnoutalib moved to SV Elversberg in the second division for around 50,000 euros.
This is surprising because the second division is only a very short stopover for Ebnoutalib. The 22-year-old striker will play for Eintracht Frankfurt in the Bundesliga from January. The Frankfurt native’s services to Eintracht are worth eight million euros. “It’s an indescribable feeling. If you have the chance to play for your own city, there’s nothing better,” said Ebnoutalib at his presentation on Monday. From the regional league to the top floor of German football, and that in just one year. Chapeau.
Only joined the club at the age of 14
Careers like Ebnoutalib’s are no longer planned. It wasn’t until he was 14 that Ebnoutalib joined a club; in his youth, the 1.91-meter-tall slug played for SV 07 Heddernheim and Rot-Weiß Frankfurt. Decent level, but not the very highest level at which the kids compete in the youth performance centers. In 2022 he will move to the U19 team from AS Perugia to Italy. An unfortunate chapter that ended after a year. After a metatarsal fracture, the contract in Perugia was terminated and Ebnoutalib was without a club for six months. It didn’t look like professional football.
But then FC Gießen, then still a regional league team, struck. And the career took off. In Giessen, Ebnoutalib presented himself professionally and even hired a personal trainer. “He was always very disciplined and focused,” remembers Michel Magel, managing director of FC Gießen. With the result that Ebnoutalib quickly attracted the interest of higher-class clubs.
Exciting profile
Which makes sense, because Ebnoutalib brings an exciting profile. At 1.91 meters he is a real striker, strong in holding the ball and with a lot of assertiveness. His game is that of a classic center forward. For SV Elversberg, Ebnoutalib scored all 12 of his goals this season from inside the penalty area, and in the box he has an above-average number of ball contacts and shots on goal. The man is a classic nine. “Younes is a very dangerous player with a very good physique. We are convinced that he can quickly help us with his skills, especially since he has all the athletic requirements,” said Eintracht sports director Markus Krösche
And so Ebnoutalib only needed half a year of second division football to recommend himself for even higher tasks. And all this in his hometown, where his father Faissal Ebnoutalib, former silver medalist in taekwondo at the 2000 Olympics, still runs a martial arts center today. By the way: Even if you could use your goals at FC Gießen, you are of course happy to see Ebnoutalib’s development there: “We as the whole club are happy that things are going so well for him,” said Magel.
