Introducing Said El Mala
A 317-minute breakdown of the German winger hell-bent on destruction
“He’s got that first burst of acceleration, and then a second one in the same move. That surprises many defenders. From that high-speed action, he can get into a shooting position, and he does that very well.”
That’s FC Bayern München coach Vincent Kompany speaking. About who? You’d be forgiven for thinking Jamal Musiala, Michael Olise or Luis Díaz, or another of his superstar attackers. In actuality, the Belgian legend is talking about little-known 1. FC Köln 19-year-old, Said El Mala.
Kompany will have almost certainly watched countless clips of the breakout Bundesliga prospect in preparation for Bayern’s meeting with Köln in the DFB-Pokal tonight, but perhaps the one moment he was referring to in particular was El Mala’s outstanding equaliser against Augsburg last week.
The sequence began with a familiar sight: El Mala receiving and running with the ball on the last line, outside the opposition defence, tracked only by an isolated defender.
Having dragged his side up the pitch and forced the opposition back into their own box, he targets the one-v-one, squaring up and driving directly at his defender, and angling into the penalty area.
A succession of shifty steps and tiny touches drives the defender even further backward. Once his opponent loads all of his weight onto his right leg, El Mala cuts across his left.
Having created the separation, El Mala cracks a vicious shot that flies through bodies, over the outstretched arm of the goalkeeper, scrapes the underside of the crossbar, and nestles in the net. Effzeh have their equaliser in the 76th minute, and the 19-year-old has his telling impact - again.
That was El Mala’s third Bundesliga goal in just 235 minutes in the 2025/26 campaign, his first season in top-flight football. As of writing, he has played 317. 317 minutes should not be enough to go viral as often as El Mala has, to build a highlight reel so dense, or to catch the attention of the league’s runaway manager - but here we are.
I’ve watched all 317. Here are the details, the little stitches that make up a direct, destructive dribbler capable of flipping games on their head.
