Who’s the best free kick taker in Europe right now? | OneFootball

Omar Marmoush may not be a household name, but that could soon change. Eintracht Frankfurt have a free-kick wizard on their hands, one that recently joined an illustrious company.

An international teammate of Mohamed Salah the Egyptian recently netted for a third successive game in all competitions, each one via a direct free-kick, something that has been previously achieved by one Bundesliga-based player: Christian Fuchs, who did so for Bochum during the 2009/10 season, while across Europe’s big five league’s only Lionel Messi (2016/17 and 2017/18) plus Alessandro Del Piero (2008/09) belong in this exclusive club.

His efforts have enabled Eintract to sit third in Germany’s top division after their opening ten fixtures. Marmoush himself is tied with Harry Kane in the early running for this season’s Kicker-Torjägerkanone; both have struck 11 times.

But is the 25-year-old Europe’s new FK master? We’ve looked at the combined numbers across the continent’s seven highest-ranked leagues plus Uefa’s three major competitions since the 2023/24 season began.

Most direct free-kick goals across Europe’s top seven leagues and Uefa competitions (2023-24 – now):

So far this season, Marmoush is the only player across Europe’s top seven leagues plus Uefa competitions to score more than one direct free kick. However, if you stretch the date range back to last season, Fabian Rieder — with his efforts split between Rennes and VfB Stuttgart — scored the most free kicks, with four from eight attempts.

Level with Marmoush on three are Jordan Holsgrove (Estoril) and Philippe Rommens (Go Ahead Eagles, Ferencvárosi TC), with both Marmoush and Holsgrove registering their freekicks scored from 10 attempts. Rommens has so far taken one more. But when it comes to direct free-kick expected goals (xgFK), it’s Rommens slightly ahead (0.67) of Marmoush (0.63), who has missed the target once, while Rommens and Rieder (0.4) have done so on three and two occasions, respectively. Holsgrove (0.5) is yet to.

Who’s the best Premier League free-kick taker right now?

Ward-Prowse has the best ‘expected goals on target from free kicks’ rate (1.82), suggesting he has the best technique and accuracy. The Opta metric ‘expected goals on target’ was designed to measure shot placement, as the values are assigned after efforts are taken, whereas ‘expected goals’ is calculated before and, as far as free kicks go, will only measure the value of the goalscoring opportunity based on where the free kick was won. However, it’s also worth noting that Ward-Prowse has taken the most direct free-kicks (34) and missed the joint most (11)

Eberchi Eze (1.56) is next on that list. He’s only managed to score one free kick in the date range but was mistakenly denied another in Crystal Palace’s showdown with Brentford, which, because it was disallowed, cannot affect his score here. Eze is the player currently level with Ward-Prowse when it comes to seeing a direct free-kick missing its target.

In terms of efficiency, Foden stands out, having put away two of his five direct free kicks (40%) during this period. Although he’s seen two more efforts go wayward, explaining why his xgFK is at a lowly 0.42. Incredibly, both remain Foden’s only direct free-kick goals in the Premier League, with both coming in dominant wins over Brighton and Aston Villa at the backend of the 2023/24 season.