With a year delay, the battle for the European title has now started. Football zone highlights players who you should pay attention to during EURO 2020 or who have a special story. In the eleventh episode, attention is paid to Jamal Musiala, an eighteen-year-old midfielder in Germany’s European Championship selection who not so long ago dreamed of a breakthrough for Chelsea and the England national team.
Hansi Flick stood motionless on the sidelines in the Allianz Arena on December 5 last year. His team had a hard time in the opening phase against RB Leipzig and after nineteen minutes of play, they deservedly fell behind the team of Julian Nagelsmann. Bayern Munich couldn’t get a foothold and to make matters worse, the injured Javi Martínez asked for a substitution. It looked like it was going to be a losing night for Bayern. The moment the experienced Spaniard stumbled to the side, the fourth official held up number 42. Jamal Musiala, almost fifteen years younger, came in and impressively turned the game around.
“Hey! Unbelievable!” said Jens Lehmann with a laugh into the microphone when seventeen-year-old Musiala beautifully signed for the 1-1 five minutes after his substitute. Perhaps even more impressive than the way he outsmarted four RB Leipzig defenders and goalkeeper Peter Gulácsi was the way the youngest player on the field played out his midfield role. He controlled even the most difficult passes with great ease. He gracefully frolicked between the lines and delivered balls to his teammates. Four minutes after his goal, Musiala provided the assist to Thomas Müller’s 2-1. Bayern Munich eventually had to settle for a 3-3 draw, but stepped off the field knowing they had a new diamond in the rough on their hands.
“We had hardly any control in the game in the opening phase. That changed with the introduction of Jamal,” Flick said after the match, which was Musiala’s seventh appearance on behalf of Bayern in the Bundesliga. Leipzig coach Nagelsmann was also impressed by the top talent. “The boy is confident on the ball. He has fast feet and is difficult to defend. An enormous talent”, he praised. A talent that has traveled a remarkable route to the top, partly due to his mother’s career. At a young age he left for England, to eventually return to Germany and break through there at the highest level. Musiala could have played for the England national team, but this summer is the youngest member in the European Championship selection of Joachim Löw.
As a seven-year-old from Germany to England
Musiala was born on February 26, 2003 in Stuttgart. His German mother with Polish roots and Nigerian father decided to move to Fulda, near Frankfurt, two years later. At a young age, Musiala signed up for TSV Lehnerz, today known as SG Barockstadt Fulda-Lehnerz. He scored more than 100 goals in his first season. “Jamal played below his level,” his former youth coach Micha Hoffmann recently told Goal. “That’s why we quickly decided to let him play with older children. His father was also a big proponent of that.” At the age of seven, he was the greatest talent in the youth of TSG Lehnerz. The club was sad when he suddenly had to move to England. Mother Carolin had an opportunity to participate in a four-month Erasmus program at the University of Southampton, as part of her master’s degree at the University of Frankfurt. The move to England was crucial to his development as a footballer.
Mother Carolin Musiala and father Daniel Richard were unable to find a new club for their son Jamal in England. In October 2010, the Musiala family therefore took the plunge and made an attempt at the biggest club in the city: Southampton. Without an appointment, but with success the Premier League club was visited. At the club they ran into Partnership Development Manager Jazz Bhatti. He invited young Jamal to Southampton Under-7, trained by his brother Rosh Bhatti. “Jamal didn’t speak a word of English, but he immediately made a social connection. He showed how quickly and easily football can connect people from different countries and cultures,” said Bhatti. Musiala impressed and was added to Southampton’s youth academy, where he quickly made a name for himself. He scored easily and that was also noticed at other clubs. The scouts of Arsenal and Chelsea, among others, got their sights on him within four months.
Southampton recognized Musiala’s talent and was eager to keep him. He could also go to Arsenal and Chelsea. The choice ultimately fell on the youth academy of the Blues. His departure from Southampton as a nine-year-old was partly due to the fact that his mother Carolin had found a job in Farnham, not far from Chelsea’s training complex. Two years later, as an 11-year-old, he earned a scolarship at the famed Whitgift School in South Croydon, a private school with which Chelsea partners and which also includes players such as Victor Moses and Callum Hudson-Odoi. In the youth of Chelsea he developed stormy. It was therefore not surprising that he came into the picture for the national youth teams. Although Musiala was born in Germany, he could now play for England.
On December 18, 2017, he played perhaps his best youth international against the Netherlands Under-15. The game was only 22 minutes into the game when Musiala scored his third goal of the game. Sliding to his knees, he celebrated his hat-trick, followed by a handshake with his buddy Jude Bellingham. England Under-15 went on to win the match 3-1. It was a wonderful end to a strong calendar year for Musiala. His performance against the Dutch talents ensured that the German Football Association got an even better view of him. It led to an invitation to the Germany Under-16s ten months later. He accepted the invitation and did not feel good about it after the international match. The match against Belgium Under-16 was lost with no less than 4-1 and Musiala could not leave his mark in the team of youth coach Christian Wuck. Fifteen-year-old Musiala was honored by the invitation, but couldn’t wait to return to England.
Musiala worked at Chelsea on his dream of making his debut at Stamford Bridge. It would never come to that. Because of Brexit, his parents considered returning to Germany. The idea of returning was boosted by Bayern Munich’s interest. The German superpower came to Musiala because the club was busy attracting another talent: Hudson-Odoi. During the talks between the parties involved, Musiala’s name was mentioned several times. Bayern already knew who he was then. Chief scout Marco Neppe had already watched the Chelsea talent several times in 2017. Bayern Under-16 coach Alexander Moj had already noticed Musiala’s talent in 2015. Bayern asked Musiala to make the switch and successfully. “I had several offers at the time,” Musiala recently said in an interview with Goal. “Bayern Munich felt like the right choice. And let’s be honest: if a club like Bayern wants you, you can’t refuse.”
On 20 June 2020, less than a year since his move from Chelsea to Bayern, Musiala came in as a replacement for Thomas Müller in the 88th minute of the Bundesliga game against SC Freiburg. His debut followed after eight convincing matches in Bayern Under-19 and ten duels in the U23 team. Head coach Hansi Flick made the talent Bayern’s youngest player in the Bundesliga of all time: 17 years and 115 days. Flick spoke of an “extraordinary talent” and complimented those from the youth academy who had managed to attract him. Shortly after his debut, he was included by Flick in the Bayern squad for the ‘Final 8’ of the Champions League in Lisbon. However, it did not come to a performance in the knockout phase of the billion-dollar ball.
After a short summer break in 2020, Musiala’s big breakthrough followed last season. He scored his first goal on September 18, in the 8-0 win against Schalke 04. At the beginning of December, he made his first appearance in the Champions League against Atlético Madrid, followed moments later by his memorable comeback against RB Leipzig. Besides Flick, Musiala’s teammates also praised his qualities. “Jamal is insanely good for his age,” said Joshua Kimmich. Manuel Neuer also handed out a big compliment: “That boy is an important part of our team.” Like Kimmich and Neuer, Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané, Kingsley Coman and Leon Goretzka also became good friends with Musiala. Sané nicknamed him ‘Bambi’ and Kimmich often dragged the youngster to the weight room.
Kimmich and the other German teammates also missed every opportunity to convince Musiala to choose the national team of Germany. The midfielder was still a youth international for England and had not played in the German shirt since his unfortunate debut for Germany Under-16. Shortly after his eighteenth birthday, Musiala made the decision: he opted for an international career with Germany, partly thanks to the talks with Kimmich and other German teammates. But national coach Joachim Löw also managed to convince him in a personal conversation in January 2021 in the Allianz Arena. “It was not an easy decision,” Musiala said. “I have a heart for Germany and a heart for England. Both hearts keep beating. I have listened to my gut. It felt good to choose Germany, the country where I was born.”
The eighteen-year-old midfielder, whose market value by Transfermarkt estimated at 38 million euros, Löw gave the ultimate reward. After his debut in the German team in March against North Macedonia (1-2 defeat), a total of two more international matches followed, after which the national coach was convinced and included him in the European Championship selection. In the first group matches against France and Portugal, Musiala was in the stands, but against Hungary he came in as a substitute ten minutes before the end. Shortly after his substitute, Goretzka signed for the decisive 2-2, so that Germany qualified for the eighth finals. “I had nothing to lose”, Musiala said afterwards in the German media about his substitute, which Löw was very pleased about. The squatter against England is on the program on Tuesday evening. A special duel for Musiala, who may face Bellingham, his friend with whom he played dozens of times in the English youth teams. “It’s a game against my second home. This match is going to be cool,” Musiala said.
Episode 1: The Man’s Dilemma Who Once Got His Gambling Grandfather £125,000
Episode 2: The heir of the ‘clown in the sweatpants’ who mirrors Van der Sar
Episode 3: ‘Koziolek’ can play Dutchman from the books 1.5 years after car crash at the European Championship
Episode 4: The street kid who reached the Premier League and European Championship from the seventh level
Episode 5: Italy has its own Jurriën-Timber scenario due to Mancini .’s striking decision
Episode 6: the Dutch opponent is amazed: ‘Those are three great players alone’
Episode 7: Teen of 70 million new eye-catcher from Sporting and Portugal
Episode 8: Quarrels, Masturbation Video and Deadpool: The ‘Russian Mario Balotelli’
Episode 9: the Dutch warned about new Peter Crouch: ‘I’m not the smartest’
Episode 10: Bielsa’s Project: From Gray Mouse in the Championship to European Championship Revelation
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