\n<\/p>\n
Ebnoutalib comes from a sporting background. His father, Faissal, was a silver medallist for Germany in taekwondo at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.<\/p>\n
“My father took me to taekwondo training for 10 years and I think that has also helped me in football,” he said on Tuesday.<\/p>\n
“Doing Taekwondo made me more flexible, so I have never had any muscular injuries.”<\/p>\n
Yet the young striker’s journey to the top was not always easy.<\/p>\n
After coming through the ranks at amateur club Rot-Weiss Frankfurt, he endured a disastrous spell at Italian side AC Perugia from 2022 to 2023.<\/p>\n
Ebnoutalib remembered how, as an 18-year-old in a foreign country, he was “shouted off the training pitch” by a coach during his first session with the senior team.<\/p>\n
He would make only one league appearance for Perugia in Serie C, before leaving in late 2023.<\/p>\n
“In footballing terms it was the wrong decision for me [to go to Italy], but without that experience, I don’t think I would be where I am today,” he said.<\/p>\n
After returning to Germany, Ebnoutalib’s career appeared to have stalled until Cimen handed him a fresh chance at Giessen in July 2024.<\/p>\n
The move kick-started his meteoric rise, propelling him from the fourth tier to the top flight in the space of a year.<\/p>\n
After signing for Elversberg in January 2025, he narrowly missed out on Bundesliga promotion last May before hitting a brilliant run of form in the autumn.<\/p>\n
Now, the 22-year-old is looking forward to Champions League football with Eintracht and a Bundesliga debut against Karim Adeyemi, Emre Can and Serhou Guirassy on Friday.<\/p>\n
“To make a jump like that in the space of a year and suddenly be playing against world-class players is pretty crazy,” he admitted.<\/p>\n
Ebnotualib may well be thrown in at the deep end on Friday, with Frankfurt currently short on frontline options.<\/p>\n
First-choice striker Jonathan Burkardt is out with a calf injury while French forward Elye Wahi has been loaned to Nice.<\/p>\n
Former coach Cimen believes that Ebnoutalib is ready to make his mark on the top flight.<\/p>\n
“With his abilities, we always knew he would end up in the top divisions,” he said.<\/p>\n
He added that it would be “no surprise” to see Ebnoutalib land at a Premier League club one day.<\/p>\n
“The Premier League is a physically very tough league, and Younes has all the right qualities for that,” he said.<\/p>\n
“For now, though, he is living his dream with Eintracht Frankfurt.”<\/p>\n<\/div>\n