Bulinews Player of the Season Awards: 1. FC Köln's Player of the Season

Said El Mala was the victor for 1. FC Köln's player of the season for the 2025-26 Bundesliga season, securing all 10 votes out of 10.

(Photo by Dean Mouhtaropoulos/Getty Images)

Said El Mala has had an amazing season considering it is his debut season in the Bundesliga at only 19 years old.

With 13 goals and five assists, the young Germany under 21 international was unlucky to miss out on making the Germany squad for this summer's World Cup in America.

Having been called up in autumn last year for the final World Cup qualifying group games, El Mala is however yet to make his debut for the senior Germany team.

Due to his success this season with Köln, El Mala has seen interest from multiple top clubs with a 45 million euro bid being revealed to have been received from Brentford this season.

Highlights for the 19 year old include a solo wonder goal against Bayern Munich on the final day where he took it from the halfway line all the way into the net with a feat of super solo dribbling.

Honourable mentions:

In terms of votes, no other players received any votes so there were no voted for honourable mentions. However, Jakub Kaminski deserves an honourable mention due to his superb campaign with the fourth most distance covered this season in the entire Bundesliga.

Alongside this, the Poland international player had ten goal contributions this season in the league and fulfilled 34 appearances not missing a single tie.