“Surprising to many people”
Super talent El Mala on the bench against Frankfurt: TV expert reaction
November 22, 2025 – 18:49Reading time: 2 minutes
The best talents on the bench against Frankfurt: Lothar Matthäus explains why Kwasniok’s decision at FC Köln was the right one.
After his first experience at a training camp with the German senior national team, Said El Mala initially had to sit in the back seat at 1. FC Köln at the weekend. FC coach Lukas Kwasniok did without the 19-year-old winger in the starting line-up in the Bundesliga match against Eintracht Frankfurt on Saturday evening (live ticker on t-online) and instead relied on Jan Thielmann.
“As a coach, you have to be careful with a 19-year-old player, even though he still has a lot of quality, and maybe bring him off the bench,” said the national player of record. The line-up against Frankfurt “might surprise a lot of people”, but personally he thinks it’s right, said Matthäus.
The fact that Cologne does not want to overload young players is the right way to deal with such young players. Before the match, Kwasniok had only guaranteed regular spots for a few players. El Mala, unlike Thielmann and Jakub Kaminski, does not fall into this circle.
With Thielmann, a player who had played through the first seven games of the season before a muscle injury against Augsburg ruled him out, returning to the starting line-up on Saturday evening. The 23 year old player is now fit again. “He has a number of players,” Matthäus said of Kwasniok’s offensive options. The reasons for not taking El Mala into account are “certainly understandable”.
