From the sixth tier to the Bundesliga with Mainz in six months: Fabio Moreno Fell's meteoric rise
On 11 June 2025, Fabio Moreno Fell was playing in a relegation play-off round encounter as his sixth-tier side attempted to earn promotion. Six months later, he made his Bundesliga debut for Mainz against Borussia Mönchengladbach. Get the full story on the 25-year-old’s meteoric rise...
The 2025/26 campaign has certainly been a difficult one for Mainz. After the highs of qualifying for the UEFA Conference League last term, they have plummeted to the bottom of the Bundesliga after 14 matchdays this time around, managing just one league victory so far.
For Moreno Fell, however, this season has been a fairy-tale. He has now made two first-team appearances despite no previous experience at the top level of German football in his six-year career thus far, and has earned an unexpected contract extension as a result.
Clearly, it has been a long way to the top for the centre-forward. Born in Las Palmas, Spain, he was on the books of Kaiserslautern as a youngster, making 11 appearances for Ingolstadt’s second string and one for the first team when they were in the 3. Liga in 2019.
A spell at Oberliga outfit Rielasingen (the fifth tier on the German footballing pyramid) followed, but after failing to rip up any trees there, he stepped down a division and joined Gau-Odernheim – a club based in a small Rhineland-Palatinate village with a population of around 4,000.
That decision ultimately proved to be the making of him. Between March 2021 and June 2025, Moreno Fell scored a huge 120 goals in 107 games. After 24 and 30-goal hauls in 2022/23 and 2023/24 respectively, he hit new heights last season, finding the back of the net on a stunning 50 occasions in 30 league matches, unsurprisingly taking home the league’s Golden Boot as a result.
He netted a further three strikes in the relegation play-off round, but that was not enough for him and his teammates to move up a division.
Still, such a prolific scoring rate is rare regardless of the level, and Mainz chose to take a chance on a player who admitted that his football career had taken a back seat to his apprenticeship prior to his summer 2025 switch to the Mewa Arena.
Moreno Fall initially joined up with the U23s side, who play their football in the fourth-tier Regionalliga – already a significant step up for the centre-forward.
"The initial training session was tough, strenuous, and intense,” he said on his first impressions. "That's when I realised it was a completely different league. But I adapted over time. After three or four training sessions, I realised it was working."
Despite the step up in quality, he seemed unfazed, netting nine goals in 16 outings as Mainz's U23s added their name to the title conversation.
Still, it was a surprise when he was invited to train with the first team by former Mainz head coach Bo Henriksen during one of the international breaks, and an even bigger one when he was included in the matchday squad for the visit of Werder Bremen at the start of November.
The departure of Henriksen in December, by which point Moreno Fall had also been named in the squad for the clash with Freiburg, threatened to derail his progress, but it actually worked in his favour. In Benjamin Hoffmann’s one game as interim head coach, the newcomer was given his debut from the start, in the 1-0 loss to Borussia Mönchengladbach on Matchday 13.
Although he was unable to affect the scoreline, it was a monumental moment in Moreno Fell’s footballing life, and only the woodwork – twice – prevented him from finding the back of the net and becoming an instant hero.
Watch: Mainz 0-1 Borussia M'gladbach - highlights
After a subsequent outing, this time from the bench, in Urs Fischer’s first game in charge as Mainz drew 1-1 with Lech Poznan in the Conference League, he was still coming to terms with his new reality. "Right now, it feels like a dream. I won't really be able to fully grasp it all until the break,” he said.
Moreno Fell was also on the bench for Mainz’s clash with Bayern as they became only the second team to take points off the Bavarians in this season's Bundesliga, and called standing alongside Harry Kane and Co. in the tunnel “a bit surreal”.
With the winter break just around the corner, he has two more chances to add to his appearance tally as Mainz host Samsunspor in their final Conference League league phase match before another home game against fellow strugglers St. Pauli at the weekend.
What happens in 2026 is anyone’s guess, but 2025 will not be forgotten in the Moreno Fell household any time soon.
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