Omar Marmoush: From Free Transfer to Tottenham's Forward

Omar Marmoush arrives at Tottenham as a forward shaped by extremes: explosive rise, brutal setback, and a career now balanced on a fresh opportunity in north London.

From free transfer to £59m statement

Eintracht Frankfurt picked him up for nothing from Wolfsburg in May 2023. He left them as a £59 million striker.

In Germany, Marmoush didn’t just grow, he erupted. His first season brought 17 goals in all competitions, a strong return for a player still finding his ceiling. The first half of the 2024-2025 campaign ripped that ceiling away.

Fifteen Bundesliga goals from 8.9 expected goals. Nine assists in 17 league matches. By the time Manchester City came calling in January 2025, he had 20 goals and 13 assists in 26 games across all competitions. Those are not purple-patch numbers. Those are “big-club-move” numbers.

City paid the price. Literally.

Free-kick streak and the City high

Marmoush added something rare to that profile: a dead-ball threat that put him in elite company. He became the first player in Europe’s top five leagues since Lionel Messi in 2019 to score directly from a free kick in three consecutive official matches. That kind of detail sticks in the minds of scouts, analysts, and sporting directors.

His early months at Manchester City suggested the leap hadn’t fazed him. He scored the first hat-trick of his career against Newcastle. He then hit the winner against Bournemouth in the FA Cup quarter-final and followed that with a long-range strike against the same opponent in the league, a goal later voted City’s goal of the season.

He looked like a natural fit in a super-team. Until Wembley.

The penalty that won’t go away

The 2025 FA Cup final against Crystal Palace turned into the defining low of his City spell. Erling Haaland handed him the ball. Marmoush stepped up. Dean Henderson saved. City lost at Wembley.

Moments like that can cling to a player’s reputation, especially at a club where every detail is magnified. Yet former City defender Nedum Onuoha refuses to let that miss become the headline of Marmoush’s time in Manchester.

“When I see Marmoush, I don’t remember the missed penalty,” Onuoha told BBC. “I see the power he possesses in some of his runs in behind the defenders.”

The numbers show a player who contributed, even if he never fully nailed down a starting spot. Since joining City, Marmoush has scored 16 goals in 62 matches in all competitions. In the 2025-2026 season alone, he produced 8 goals in 36 games.

A shrinking role at City

The Premier League tells a harsher story. Marmoush started only eight league matches in 2025-2026 and played roughly 700 minutes, fewer than he managed in the half-season immediately after his arrival.

Three goals and three assists in the league underline the limited impact. His expected goals stood at 3.53, almost identical to his actual tally. That suggests his finishing held up. The issue lay elsewhere.

Onuoha points to the obvious barrier: competition. At City, the roles Marmoush can fill are crowded with specialists. Haaland locks down the pure No. 9 position. Behind and around him, the squad is stacked with number 10s and wingers who are tailor-made for Pep Guardiola’s system.

For Marmoush, that meant minutes in different roles, but not a guaranteed starting lane. For Tottenham, it means something else entirely: opportunity.

Built for De Zerbi’s chaos

Label him an out-and-out striker and you only tell half the story. At Frankfurt he operated as a central striker, a second striker and off the left. City used him through the middle, out wide and behind another forward.

That fluidity feels tailor-made for Roberto De Zerbi’s demands. His teams thrive on forwards rotating positions, dropping deep to receive, then exploding into the spaces created behind a disorganised back line.

Onuoha believes Marmoush is at his best when he lives on the shoulder of the last defender.

“Although he is good when he drops towards the ball, I think he is better when he plays on the shoulder of the defender,” he said. “He needs a team that consistently plays him into the spaces behind the defence and forces the opponent to run towards their own goal.”

Tottenham under De Zerbi are unlikely to shy away from that idea.

The data that separates him from Spurs’ current options

Opta’s numbers from the 2025-2026 Premier League season paint Marmoush as a very different profile to Tottenham’s existing forwards Dominic Solanke and Richarlison.

• 0.77 goals and assists
• 3.86 shots
• 1.55 chances created
• 5.67 progressive carries
• 1.29 successful dribbles
• 6.82 touches inside the penalty area
• 11.46 runs in behind the defence

Those figures describe a forward who doesn’t just wait for service. He carries the ball forward, takes on defenders and manufactures his own shooting angles. For a Spurs side that often faces deep, compact blocks, that kind of self-starter can change the rhythm of an attack.

Onuoha sees that fit clearly. “Sometimes it’s just about how well a player fits the team,” he said. “Marmoush’s ability to run in behind the defence and link up play could be very important for Tottenham. They won’t hesitate to play balls in behind the defence and force the opponent to retreat.”

Not Solanke’s replacement – his partner?

Signing Marmoush does not have to push Solanke out of the picture. It might actually unlock him.

Marmoush has long shown a knack for playing off another striker. That opens up the possibility of a front two, something that could stretch Premier League back lines in a different way.

Solanke brings the physical presence. He can pin centre-backs, fight for low balls and occupy defenders. Marmoush can then drift wide, drop between the lines, or time his runs into the spaces Solanke’s duels create.

“Solanke is different from Marmoush, as he has a greater physical presence,” Onuoha said. “I can imagine the goalkeeper playing a low ball to Solanke, with Marmoush coming from behind him to receive it, and that becomes the start of the attack.

“Each of them can complement the other. Playing with two strikers could bring out more of Marmoush’s strengths.”

From Frankfurt to Manchester and now to Tottenham, Marmoush has shown he can adapt, score and hurt defences in different ways. The missed penalty at Wembley will always be part of his story. The question now is whether north London becomes the place where he finally writes a defining chapter on his own terms.