Jamal Musiala kicked off his international career playing alongside Jude Bellingham for the Three Lions, so his nationality switch made headlines. But the Bayern Munich tyro is thriving for both club and country – and tells FFT he has an eye on winning the Ballon d’Or one day...
Words Ed McCambridge
nothing weighs as heavy on the heart as the one that got away. Yes, somebody special who was within your reach is now thriving somewhere else without you.
For English football, Jamal Musiala is that person. The 20-year-old, born in Stuttgart to a British Nigerian father and a German mother, but raised on England’s shores between the ages of seven and 16, looked destined to represent the Three Lions on the world stage – only to choose a different path.
FourFourTwo has flown to Bavaria to learn first-hand how this young talent, considered among the brightest in Europe, fell through England’s net. Wearing a baggy green hoodie and Crocs without socks, Musiala bounces into our interview at Bayern Munich’s dazzling training complex. “Hey there, how’s it going?” he asks, beaming. FFT sighs inwardly. His buoyant geniality isn’t exactly helping with our sense of loss.
Musiala speaks perfect – if ever so slightly accented – English now, but he didn’t when he moved to the UK in 2010. “My mum was invited to study at Southampton University and we moved over as a family,” he explains. “It wasn’t easy to make friends at first, but I picked up the language quickly. I enjoyed it and was able to hold a conversation within about six months.”
Fortunately, Musiala arrived already fluent in the only language that matters on British playgrounds. “I played football with the other boys at lunchtime and that helped me to fit in,” he reminisces. “I was really surprised to see how much football the kids in England played. You’d finish school, then head down the park for a kickabout. Everywhere you look in England, on every patch of grass and street corner, there are kids playing football.”
Musiala promptly joined a local boys’ team, City Central FC, where his displays caught the eye of Southampton, who were then in League One. Videos of a pint-sized Musiala draped in an oversized Saints shirt, gliding past players with ludicrous ease, have since surfaced online. “I wouldn’t say football was easy for me,” says Musiala, before breaking into a grin. “But let’s just say I had a lot of fun in those matches.”
Musiala wouldn’t stay to become a fans’ favourite at St Mary’s. When he was eight, Chelsea spo
