da stake casino： Jamal Musiala had set his sights on playing for England – but an intervention from then-Germany boss Joachim Low changed his mind.
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Played for Germany & England at youth levelJoined Bayern from Chelsea in 2019Reason behind Germany switch revealedWHAT HAPPENED?
The Bayern Munich ace was born in Stuttgart but moved to England aged seven. After representing both Germany and England at youth level, the attacking midfielder reportedly envisaged a career with the Three Lions. That all changed, though, when Low met the teenager following his 2019 move to Bayern from Chelsea and together he and the German side's academy director convinced him that playing for Die Mannschaft was the best course of action.
AdvertisementGettyWHAT CONVINCED HIM?
His former school coach, Andrew Martin, told : “It was always going to be England. I vividly remember having conversations with him and his dad (Daniel Richard). Jamal played for both countries at Under-15s and the report back was that he preferred England. He felt more at home there, he played for Chelsea and there were other Chelsea boys in the England squad, and he knew others from playing on the academy circuit. But sadly for English football, at 16 Jamal decided not to sign for Chelsea and moved to Bayern Munich. I know that that shifted it all, they put it completely the other way. He was playing for Bayern, he was on the academy circuit there.
"Bayern made a clear pathway. I remember at the time Jamal went to meet Jogi Low and the academy director at Bayern. They made a clear pathway of how he would get into the Bayern first team and the German first team. I think once you meet the first-team manager as a 16-17-year-old, I think your decision is made for you. That’s pretty impressive that they made the time to do that. He wanted it to be England but then it was the move to Germany that swayed everything, with the help of Low and the help of the Bayern set-up. They made a clear pathway for him and a year later he was playing in the Bayern first team.”
THE BIGGER PICTURE
So far, it seems Musiala made the right decision. The 21-year-old has already played 163 times for Bayern, scoring 43 goals in the process, and he has racked up 32 caps for Germany. He is proving to be a key player in Germany's bid to win Euro 2024 in their home country this month.
GettyWHAT NEXT?
Musiala, who can also play as a winger on either side of the pitch, is likely to start in Germany's last-16 Euro 2024 encounter with Denmark on Saturday night at Westfalenstadion. If they win that, a quarter-final against Spain or Georgia awaits.