Italian nightmare: Younes Ebnoutalib lived in a broken apartment

Bundesliga shooting star Younes Ebnoutalib recounts how he lived in a rundown apartment with broken toilets in Italy before he made his debut for the national team in September.

The 23‑year‑old striker has made the journey from the fourth division to the national team.

In 2023, as a goal scorer for Eintracht Frankfurt, he was on the brink of ending his career because he had moved from Rot‑Weiss Frankfurt to AC Perugia in Italy's second division – a total misunderstanding and anything but glamorous.

He reports that the club placed him in a ten‑person shared flat and describes the apartment: “A fairly rundown apartment, with double beds in the living room and broken toilets.”

Ebnoutalib stated that he spoke no Italian at all and played only three times, a total of 71 minutes, for Perugia’s first team.

From January to July 2024 he was club‑less, before regaining momentum through spells at FC Gießen, Elversberg and finally Eintracht Frankfurt.

“Even though it wasn’t the best footballing decision, it shaped my character a lot. I had to fight against obstacles, didn’t want to give up. I still benefit from that today,” he said in an interview with the Süddeutsche Zeitung.

In September he debuted in the DFB jersey after national team coach Jürgen Klopp selected him for the matches against Serbia on Friday and the Netherlands in Berlin next Monday.

Klopp had explicitly asked him to exercise restraint with this call‑up because he had accidentally leaked information himself the last time, Ebnoutalib explained.

That same month he confirmed the call‑up to a fan in a shopping centre and joked: “Watch out now, don’t go shopping anymore!”