Said El Mala: The Winger Germany Needs
On a damp evening in Cologne, with the home side grinding their way to a 1-1 draw against Werder Bremen, the conversation on the touchline drifted quickly away from the game in front of Lothar Matthäus. His gaze, and his words, were fixed on one player: Said El Mala.
“He is definitely a player for Jürgen Klopp. He would also have been a player for Julian Nagelsmann,” Matthäus told Sky, cutting straight through the noise around the 21-year-old.
The talent that slipped past Nagelsmann
El Mala’s rise at Köln has been rapid enough to force his name into every Germany squad debate. Nagelsmann called him up for the first time in November 2025 after his breakthrough at Effzeh, a reward for his explosive performances on the flank. Yet the Germany Under-21 international, with seven caps and one goal at that level, is still waiting for his senior debut.
The omission that really stung came around the World Cup. El Mala was left out of the final squad, a decision that surprised plenty inside German football. Even when Bayern Munich’s 18-year-old attacker Lennart Karl suffered a serious injury in the build-up to the tournament, the door stayed shut. Instead of turning to El Mala, Nagelsmann went for RB Leipzig’s Assan Ouedraogo, then 20.
Matthäus doesn’t buy the idea that this was about footballing quality.
“Maybe he didn't take him because there would have been too much fuss around him,” the 1990 World Cup winner suggested. “But that's exactly what we need. A player like him with this pace uses his strengths. He has strengths that you need to be right at the top.”
It was a pointed remark. Not just praise, but a challenge to the way Germany have been picking their flair players.
A chaotic summer, a sharp response
El Mala has had to live with the fuss Matthäus mentioned. His summer was messy, even by transfer-window standards. A move to FC Brentford was widely reported as close before ultimately collapsing. Borussia Dortmund circled. Then, almost out of nowhere, came a contract extension in Cologne.
That kind of window can derail a young player. El Mala chose the opposite route.
On the opening weekend of the Bundesliga season, he was on the scoresheet in a 2-1 win over Hoffenheim, a reminder of why so many clubs had chased him in the first place. Direct. Fast. Relentless with the ball at his feet.
Illness then forced him to miss the 1-4 defeat at Stuttgart. Carrying a knock, he started on the bench against Werder and only entered the pitch for the final 15 minutes. Even in that short cameo, though, he changed the temperature of the game. The crowd lifted. Defenders backed off.
Köln coach Rene Wagner is trying to manage both the hype and the player’s body.
“He has already been involved,” Wagner said of El Mala’s DFB prospects. “There has not yet been any exchange. Said now wants to perform in order to put himself forward. Unfortunately from the bench today, but we have great hope that he gives us plenty of energy.”
Linton Maina, Köln’s goalscorer on the night, put it more bluntly: with El Mala, “a rocket is still coming off the bench.”
The table shows a steady start rather than fireworks. Köln sit 11th with four points. One more league match at Hamburger SV awaits before the first international break of the season. Then the real question arrives.
Klopp’s first big call
On Thursday, Jürgen Klopp will name his first Germany squad. The new national coach has already been strongly linked with El Mala. According to Sky, Klopp wants to rely on the Köln winger and sees enough potential to make him part of his plans from day one.
The hints have been there from the start. At his inaugural press conference at the end of July, Klopp opened the door wide for fresh faces and underlined how important wide players will be in his system.
“Because every opponent can make the pitch very narrow. The only advantage you have is for a brief moment out wide. The playmakers of the modern era are out wide,” he said.
Look at El Mala through that lens and the fit is obvious. From an attacking standpoint, his pace, his dribbling and his straight-line drive towards goal are made for Klopp’s intense football. The other side of the ball will decide how far this story goes. His work in counter-pressing, his willingness to chase, harry and win the ball back, will be under the microscope if he steps into the national team.
Nations League, new era, new winger?
Germany’s schedule leaves no room for a gentle introduction. The Klopp era opens in Amsterdam against the Netherlands in the Nations League on 24 September. Three days later comes his first home game in Augsburg against Greece. Serbia follow in Munich on 1 October, before a return meeting with Greece in Thessaloniki on 4 October.
Those are not friendlies. They are tests, and they come thick and fast.
Klopp has promised a team with energy and edge, built around wide playmakers who can stretch the game in tight spaces. El Mala has spent the last year showing he can do exactly that in the Bundesliga.
Now the decision rests with one man: does Klopp turn the fuss Matthäus spoke about into a defining feature of his new Germany, or does one of the most exciting wingers in the country stay stuck on the outside, waiting for the door to finally swing open?
