Bundesliga
As we enter the third international break of the 2024/25 season, Omar Marmoush continues to set the standard in the Bundesliga. Not only does the Egyptian sit joint-top of the goalscoring charts alongside Harry Kane with 11, his seven assists are also a league high.
His 18 goal contributions, therefore, are a division high too, while no other Bundesliga player has contributed to a higher proportion of his team’s goals than the Frankfurt No.11 (69 per cent). Quite frankly, he is in the form of his life, helping the Hessen outfit to the dizzy heights of third in the German top flight.
The praise has, understandably, been constant, but his latest strike against VfB Stuttgart highlighted one particular weapon in his arsenal. From all of 30 yards, Marmoush curled a free-kick over the Swabian wall and beyond Alexander Nübel with pinpoint accuracy.
It was not a one-off, either. Against Slavia Prague, the 25-year-old netted another set piece in off the bar from a slightly closer position, a strike which came after a now-familiar Marmoush special in the 7-2 hammering of VfL Bochum on Matchday 9 of the Bundesliga.
Three matches, three free-kick goals, a streak which has previously been achieved by just one player plying their trade in Germany - Christian Fuchs, who did the same for Bochum during the 2009/10 season. Beyond the German borders, Lionel Messi managed the feat in both 2016/17 and 2017/18, as did Alessandro Del Piero in 2008/09. That is some special company for Marmoush to share.
His latest such effort was his third throughout his time in the Bundesliga, having previously struck for Stuttgart against Augsburg in March 2022. Maximilian Arnold (10), Vincenzo Grifo (7) and Andrej Kramarić (6) are the only active players to have found the back of the net more frequently from free-kick situations amongst the German elite, and each of that trio have racked up considerably more appearances than Die Adler's man of the moment.
Following his effort in Europe, Frankfurt head coach Dino Toppmöller was eager to praise his star striker, saying, “‘I don’t think I have seen a better free-kick. It was simply a perfect free-kick. There was no room for a sheet of paper in between the post and the ball.”
Yet Toppmöller also suggested Marmoush doesn’t dedicate too much time to that part of his game, explaining, “Omar practices them every now and then after training, on his own or together with others. Anyone who has ever played knows how much fun it is to take free kicks."
Frankfurt sporting director Markus Krösche, meanwhile, believes the player’s general high-level finishing is a huge factor in his current run. “Omar has a very good shooting technique. That's the result of hard training and the self-confidence you need. He's also found a rhythm.
“He wasn't playing regularly at Wolfsburg. Then he came to us and played practically 90 minutes every game. That mixture of rhythm and playing time is very important. I have to pinch myself and say that things are going really well for Omar at the moment.”
Watch: Marmoush's free-kick mastery
Regardless of the amount of training such precision requires, Marmoush excels across all dead-ball situations. Frankfurt currently lead the Bundesliga for set-piece goals this term with seven, all of which have included a contribution from the former St. Pauli man – he has provided three assists from corners and has also dispatched two penalties alongside his pair of show-stoppers.
The two-week hiatus will momentarily stop him in his tracks, but Werder Bremen will no doubt be especially wary not to give Marmoush the chance to surpass the great Messi in Frankfurt’s next outing.
He may well already have bagged himself another free-kick goal by then, too, with Marmoush named in the Egypt squad for African Cup of Nations qualification matches against Cape Verde and Botswana. Right now, the sky is the limit for Marmoush, and you wouldn’t bet against him making more history in the coming weeks and months.