Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United may have just been handed a warning over Koln star Said El Mala. He won’t go anywhere without his brother, as Borussia Dortmund learned in 2024.
Sky Germany cover comments from him today, made in an interview with 11 Freunde. In that, explained why he turned down Dortmund a year ago.
El Mala is currently one of the hottest properties in German football, establishing himself as a rising star in the Bundesliga. He’s also been called up to the German national team by Julian Nagelsmann.
Several big clubs are already vying for him. A report yesterday insisted that Manchester United and Tottenham have made contact for a €30-40m deal.
If they are serious, then they need to bear in mind what previously happened to Dortmund. They were keen on El Mala last summer but ended up being turned down by the winger. Why? They didn’t realise his ‘close relationship’ with his brother Malek.
The pair have played at club alongside each other for years, initially transferring to TSV Meerbusch in the summer of 2021, and then to Viktoria Köln in the summer of 2023. Dortmund, though, only wanted Said.
“That was the end of it for me,” he explained in the interview with 11 Freunde. That was something Koln had been aware of, signing both. Malek is currently playing for the reserve team in the Regionalliga. The pair even live together in a shared apartment in the Ehrenfeld district of Cologne.
That’s something Manchester United and Tottenham need to be aware of. If they want to sign El Mala next summer, they may need to bring his brother along too.