He could have been a World Cup surprise on Julian Nagelsmann's "construction site": Bundesliga striker likely to decide against the DFB

Younes Ebnoutalib could be a surprise addition to Germany's World Cup squad. Will he play for Morocco instead?

Eintracht Frankfurt centre forward Younes Ebnoutalib has apparently decided to play for Morocco's national team for the time being. This is according to a report in Bild.

According to the report, Ebnoutalib is set to be called up to the squad of the African Cup of Nations runners-up for the first time for the upcoming international matches at the end of March. Morocco will face two other World Cup participants in friendlies against Ecuador (27 March) and Paraguay (31 March).

According to Bild, Ebnoutalib's Frankfurt teammate Ayoube Amaimouni-Echghouyab will also make his debut in Morocco's senior national team squad. The 21-year-old attacking player moved from TSG Hoffenheim's second team to Eintracht at the beginning of the year and has already made several impressive appearances for SGE, including two goals.

Younes Ebnoutalib's rapid rise to national team player

Ebnoutalib once accepted an invitation to join Morocco's U15 national team, but did not play in any matches and has not been nominated for any further selections by the North Africans since then. The fact that the senior national team is now becoming a topic of discussion sooner than expected is due to the rapid development that the 22-year-old has undergone recently.

At the beginning of 2025, he moved from FC Gießen, then in the regional league, to SV Elversberg in the 2nd Bundesliga, but initially had to take a back seat to Fisnik Asllani at the Saarland club. The Kosovar was on loan to Elversberg at the time, but is now a regular at TSG Hoffenheim. In the current season, Ebnoutalib seamlessly followed in Asllani's footsteps at SVE, scoring twelve goals in the first half of the second division season.

This was followed in early January by a very special transfer to Eintracht in his hometown of Frankfurt, where he made a dream Bundesliga debut. In early January, he scored a spectacular goal in a 3-3 draw at home against Borussia Dortmund, but a few days later he suffered a torn medial ligament in his knee in Stuttgart and has been out of action ever since. His comeback is now approaching, with Ebnoutalib back in team training at SGE since last week.

Would Younes Ebnoutalib have had a chance at the World Cup with the DFB?

If the striker had continued to impress with strong performances and further goals in the final weeks of the season, it is quite possible that national team coach Julian Nagelsmann would have considered a surprise call-up for Ebnoutalib to his World Cup squad. In his highly regarded interview with kicker magazine at the beginning of March, Nagelsmann described the striker position as "at least one area we need to work on.""

With Stuttgart's Deniz Undav in fine form, he is currently pushing for a place in the German starting line-up at the World Cup, and with Nick Woltemade and Kai Havertz, two other attackers are also likely to have their tickets to the finals pretty much secured. However, Nagelsmann also wants to take a powerful striker with him, one who is particularly strong in the air, which is why Niclas Füllkrug (AC Milan), who is still in crisis, is likely to have a good chance. Ebnoutalib could have developed into an alternative to Füllkrug here.

Ebnoutalib grew up in Frankfurt and his mother is German. His father, Faissal, is Moroccan and came to Germany in 1990. He became a naturalised citizen in 1997 and won silver for Germany in taekwondo at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.