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When Eintracht Frankfurt host Borussia Dortmund this Friday, all eyes will be on Younes Ebnoutalib.
The 22-year-old has been one of the breakout stars in German football this season, scoring 12 goals in 17 games for second-tier high-fliers Elversberg before Christmas.
That form earned him a £6.9m move to his hometown club Eintracht in late December, crowning a remarkable rise from the lower leagues to the top of the German game.
Just a year ago, Ebnoutalib was playing in the fourth tier for FC Giessen, after a major setback in Italy had dashed his hopes of a professional career.
Now, he is billed as one of the most exciting young players in Germany and a potential successor to former Frankfurt stars Omar Marmoush and Hugo Ekitike.
At his official unveiling last Tuesday, Frankfurt-born Ebnoutalib said that playing for Eintracht was "a dream come true".
"To play in my hometown, and at such a big club… it was difficult to turn that down," said the striker, who has moved back into his family home.
Yet as well as home comforts, Frankfurt also offers Ebnoutalib the chance to break into the world elite.
In recent years, Eintracht have earned a reputation as a finishing school for some of the world's best strikers.
Tottenham's Randal Kolo Muani, Manchester City's Marmoush and Liverpool's Ekitike all made their breakthrough at the German club.
The conveyor belt of talent has become a crucial part of Frankfurt's successful business model, with the club earning £128m alone on the sales of Marmoush and Ekitike last year.
Frankfurt may ultimately hope to turn a similar profit on Ebnoutalib, who has already been given the number 11 shirt previously worn by Ekitike.
On Tuesday, the 22-year-old played down comparisons with the Liverpool striker.
"I'm just trying to do my best and learn as much as I can, and then we'll see what happens," he said.
However, those who know him are in no doubt about Ebnoutalib's potential.
Former Frankfurt player Daniyel Cimen, who was Ebnoutalib's head coach at Giessen, believes the sky is the limit for his former charge.
"Younes is tall, he's athletic and he's got a great finish with both feet," Cimen told BBC Sport.
"If he improves just a few things in his game, then I don't see any limits to his potential.
"He is also very mentally tough because he has had to work hard to get where he is. He didn't come through the academy of a top club and nothing has fallen into his lap."
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.
"My father took me to taekwondo training for 10 years and I think that has also helped me in football," he said on Tuesday.
"Doing Taekwondo made me more flexible, so I have never had any muscular injuries."
Yet the young striker's journey to the top was not always easy.
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.
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.
He would make only one league appearance for Perugia in Serie C, before leaving in late 2023.
"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.
After returning to Germany, Ebnoutalib's career appeared to have stalled until Cimen handed him a fresh chance at Giessen in July 2024.
The move kick-started his meteoric rise, propelling him from the fourth tier to the top flight in the space of a year.
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.
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.
"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.
Ebnotualib may well be thrown in at the deep end on Friday, with Frankfurt currently short on frontline options.
First-choice striker Jonathan Burkardt is out with a calf injury while French forward Elye Wahi has been loaned to Nice.
Former coach Cimen believes that Ebnoutalib is ready to make his mark on the top flight.
"With his abilities, we always knew he would end up in the top divisions," he said.
He added that it would be "no surprise" to see Ebnoutalib land at a Premier League club one day.
"The Premier League is a physically very tough league, and Younes has all the right qualities for that," he said.
"For now, though, he is living his dream with Eintracht Frankfurt."
