Jamal Musiala: Why England might regret missing out on Bayern Munich midfielder

Musiala, right, became Bayern Munich's youngest scorer last month after grabbing a goal in the 8-0 win against Schalke

When England and Germany meet at Wembley on Tuesday, it will be a surreal occasion for 18-year-old Jamal Musiala.

The German-born midfielder moved to Southampton as a child, was spotted by Chelsea, played for the London club until 2019 and captained England at youth level.

But he turned down a contract with Chelsea to return to Germany, signing for Bayern Munich, a move that is paying dividends following a season in which he made 37 club appearances and was selected for Joachim Low's Euro 2020 squad.

It was only in February that Musiala confirmed he would play for Germany, having represented both nations at youth level.

"In the end, I just listened to the feeling that over a long period of time kept telling me that it was the right decision to play for Germany, the land I was born in," he told The Athletic.

"Still, it wasn't an easy decision for me. I have a heart for Germany and a heart for England. Both hearts will keep on beating. It is difficult to find words for what England means for me because I have so many memories connected to very positive emotions."

Musiala (10) played in England's junior age groups and captained the under-17s

Having obtained British citizenship in 2018, Musiala's international allegiance sparked something of a tug-of-war.

With just two under-16s appearances for the country of his birth, he featured much more regularly for England, even becoming joint-captain - alongside Borussia Dortmund's Jude Bellingham - of the U17s.

"His preference was England, purely because he'd played on the circuit against all the other academy boys - he'd played against Arsenal, Tottenham, Newcastle and so forth," says Andrew Martin, a former Crystal Palace player who now serves as director of football at Whitgift School in Croydon.

"So when they met up for England squads, he knew them from playing against them. Whereas going to Germany and not being in the German system, he didn't really feel part of that."

Throughout his time in England, though, Musiala retained a strong connection to Germany. He speaks flawless English, but he would always speak German at home, and he and his parents would travel back to Germany to visit friends and family during schools holidays.

As his standout performances at international tournaments with Chelsea began to generate interest from around the continent - with a move to Spain once close to fruition - the clarion call of his homeland's biggest club proved too tempting to refuse. In July 2019, Musiala signed a three-year deal with Bayern.

Musiala, left, has also played for Germany at youth level

From Stuttgart to Chelsea via Southampton

As a seven-year-old Musiala was scrawny and undersized compared with his peers, but you couldn't fail to notice him.

Playing for his local grassroots side, City Central, he was unstoppable. He scored at will and, for the other children chasing him around one of the half-dozen small grass pitches of the Outdoor Sports Centre in Southampton, was impossible to tackle.

Much has changed for Musiala in the years since. For one, he now stands 6ft tall. In September 2020 he became Bayern Munich's youngest goalscorer and, last week, he came off the bench with eight minutes left against Hungary to set up an equaliser that kept Germany in the European Championship and avoided a national embarrassment.

Musiala (number 14) teed up Leon Goretzka for the goal that kept Germany in Euro 2020

The skills that were on display on those occasions were evident 10 years ago.

"He just stood out then, for his ball-dribbling skills and the ability he had," remembers Graham Castle, the Chelsea scout who spotted Musiala. "The ball stuck to his feet the whole time."

Born in Stuttgart and raised in Fulda, a small city in central Germany, Musiala had only lived in England a matter of months at the time, having moved over with his parents while his mother studied sociology at the University of Southampton. Already, though, Southampton had invited the gifted young footballer to train with their under-8s.

"Obviously they liked him," Castle says of the rival interest in Musiala. "But I sold it to him to come up and have a look at our facilities and our coaching. When he got there, our coaching was levels above other places. It all fitted into place.

"Because it was towards the end of that season, our under-8s were already established. He went straight into a friendly game with Blackburn Rovers. From that, they took him on. They could see his ability. He was going around players for fun."

Musiala has always been developmentally ahead of the curve. Before becoming Bayern's youngest scorer with his strike against Schalke, he earned the distinction of being the youngest player to appear in the Bundesliga for the club when he made his debut against Freiburg in June, aged just 17 years and 115 days. And he regularly "played up" in higher age groups as he progressed through Chelsea's academy - he was only 15 years old when he first played for the Blues' U18s.

Musiala, right, was with Chelsea for eight years from 2011

"When he used to do our technical sessions on a Tuesday night, he was absolute tops," says Brian Mustill, who coached Musiala in Chelsea's U8s and U10s. "He was at the top end of the potential range."

The youngster's dribbling skills and eye for goal immediately commanded attention, but Chelsea's coaches felt it was Musiala's work ethic that truly separated him from the pack.

"When he lost the ball, he did everything in his power to win it back," says Mustill.

"I remember we played Spurs away, and I think he scored six or seven on the day. But it was his desire to win the ball having lost it, his energy levels to win the ball back. He chased the whole length of the pitch to win it back and then go and beat the whole team again."

Martin first encountered Musiala when Whitgift's U11s played against the then-Chelsea academy star's primary school team in the semi-finals of a county-wide tournament.

"We're a strong sports school but we got thoroughly thumped," Martin recalls. "We ended up losing 10-4. Jamal scored five or six."

Musiala played as a striker in Whitgift's teams and was prolific. But, like the Chelsea coaches, Martin was most struck by the youngster's commitment and determination. He points to one game in particular as evidence - an English Schools' FA U12s national tournament quarter-final against local school Coombe Boys, on a crisp and bitter afternoon on the last day of term before Christmas.

"I think it ended 5-5 and we lost on penalties," Martin says. "Jamal had scored two or three and he'd scored his penalty. At the end of the game, Jamal cried. That showed how much he cared. It was a school game, a national quarter-final, but he was a Chelsea player - he was destined for glory. That showed how much every game meant to him.

"Every time he played, it meant something to him and he cared."

Rapid rise at Bayern

Musiala was placed in Bayern's U17 squad initially, but an average of a goal or assist every 105 minutes soon saw him promoted to the U19s. When the coronavirus pandemic forced German youth football to shut down last year, he was drafted into Bayern's U23s, impressing sufficiently to be handed his historic first-team debut in June.

"The fact he has now become the youngest Bundesliga scorer in the history of FC Bayern makes us all proud," says Jochen Sauer, Bayern's youth campus director. "But we also know that he is far from the end of his development.

"There is still a long way to go to establish himself at the highest level, but he definitely has the footballing prerequisites for this."

Bayern had planned not to over-extend Musiala during 2020-21, with the plan being for the majority of his football to come in the third tier with the club's second string.

But his performances meant he simply could not be overlooked and he was a regular as Bayern won the Bundesliga title, scoring seven goals during a campaign in which he made his Champions League debut and played as Bayern won the Club World Cup.

Perhaps he was always destined to play in big games at Wembley. On Tuesday he may well do just that - but it will be in a Germany shirt, not an England one.

A version of this article was first published in October 2020.

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