Bayern’s star attraction, Musiala takes nothing for granted

KIRCHHEIM BEI MÜNCHEN, Germany — Cast your thoughts again to 2016, when two younger footballers grew to become greatest mates enjoying for England’s U15s. They’d develop nearer as they represented the nation’s U16s, U17s and U21s collectively. Now, they’re taking the game by storm.

While Jude Bellingham has had a superb begin at Real Madrid following his transfer from Borussia Dortmund, Jamal Musiala — now representing Germany at senior worldwide degree — is already talked about as being the best expertise Bayern Munich have had since Lothar Matthäus, who himself is a superb admirer. Musiala and Bellingham are the way forward for soccer; within the right here and now, although, they’re in a neck-and-neck race for this yr’s Golden Boy trophy, awarded to the most effective participant in Europe underneath the age of 21.

“It would definitely be nice to win it, and I think it reflects how hard I’ve worked for the years and everything, but it’s not something I would be 100% sad [to lose] or anything,” Musiala instructed ESPN in an unique interview throughout the offseason. “I think I just have to keep working and then the individual trophies will come.”

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Whether the trophy goes to Musiala or Bellingham, these two are destined to develop into the figurative golden boys of soccer for years to return. “It’s definitely crazy,” Musiala mentioned of rising up within the recreation alongside Bellingham. “If you look at when we were still roommates at the England national team, and then if you probably told us then in four years or something … Jude would be at Real Madrid and I’ll be at Bayern, [we] probably wouldn’t have believed it at the moment. But it’s definitely a big achievement.”

A veteran mindset from a blossoming celebrity

Despite the pair’s similarities, there are variations, too. While Bellingham comes from a soccer household, together with his dad Mark Bellingham being a prolific non-league striker for a few years, Musiala, with the assistance of his mom Carolin, needed to blaze his personal path into elite soccer.

Speaking with Musiala provides a glimpse of the real, humble persona that defines him. As naturally gifted as he’s, he doesn’t take for granted his starring function at Bayern, nor his standing as top-of-the-line younger playmakers on the earth.

“I think I work every day, and after every training or game, and then day for day at home and everything, just try to do everything that can take me to the next level,” the 20-year-old mentioned. “And I want to improve season after season and look at the little things which can take me further. And I try to start at a young age with nutrition, the extra work so I can have more stamina, my shoeing, like every little thing to work on. And then season by season, hopefully I get better.”

That mindset additionally helps Musiala overcome setbacks, whether or not it is his moderately unfortunate outing on the 2022 World Cup or some harm woes earlier this season.

After his interview with ESPN, Musiala performed one Bundesliga recreation earlier than being sidelined with a muscle tear. He returned to the beginning XI with a stellar efficiency towards Manchester United within the Champions League, outplaying United’s central midfielders, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, on quite a few events. Bayern supervisor Thomas Tuchel designed his recreation plan for that match across the thought of Musiala tying up opposing midfielders and thus creating house for teammates equivalent to Serge Gnabry, Leroy Sané and Harry Kane.

Scoring the title-winning aim from the coaching pitch

Naturally, coaches are in awe of the tactical potentialities Musiala provides them. He can play a variety of roles, from a conventional No. 10 to a central midfielder to a hybrid winger. Tuchel enjoys utilizing Musiala’s expertise to create a bonus for his assault towards opponents like United. Kane, Bayern’s file signing who joined the membership in August, is alleged to be very enthusiastic concerning the potential interaction with Musiala and what their partnership can do for the England captain.

“I always ask for advice or anything because there’s a lot of players I play around with who’ve been around longer than I have, and there’s so many people who can give me advice,” Musiala mentioned. “And I just try to take everything on and try and implement it and learn from it and try to get better.”

There are few in soccer who know as a lot about being a top-class attacking participant as Kane.

Bayern felt it essential to signal Kane after a moderately disappointing 2022-23 marketing campaign during which the membership eked out a last-minute Bundesliga title, however had been knocked out from each the Champions League and the German Cup within the quarterfinals. While Musiala performed particularly properly over the primary half of the season, he was not resistant to the staff’s downward spiral that culminated within the sacking of supervisor Julian Nagelsmann in late March.

“[I] feel like after the World Cup it was difficult for us as a whole team, and me myself, to get a good rhythm going on, and it was just kind of tough to get that going,” Musiala mentioned. “And I think we saw we were just not winning games as comfortably as we were [before] and weren’t playing how we wanted to play or how we were playing before.”

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Musiala: I educated for Bundesliga title-winning aim

Jamal Musiala seems again on his last-gasp title profitable aim for Bayern Munich towards Cologne.

In the top, he scored a late aim towards FC Cologne on the ultimate matchday of the Bundesliga season, the aim that secured Bayern their thirty third championship. Even that shot, when Musiala opened the sphere with one contact on the fringe of the penalty field after which delivered a roller previous goalkeeper Marvin Schwäbe, was purely the results of onerous work.

“I trained that exact position around there in training before,” he mentioned. “I think there was a video where I trained it where it looked exactly the same, and I think I just try and do a lot of repetitions in training of the positions I might be in the game. Luckily, I was training the right position I guess.”

Bayern’s begin to their 2023-24 marketing campaign has not gone notably properly. They have been in a position to rediscover their attacking nous after the 3-0 German Super Cup loss to RB Leipzig at Allianz Arena, but they continue to be susceptible defensively as seen in latest video games towards Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen.

On Saturday, Musiala and his teammates will once more meet RB Leipzig, who underneath supervisor Marco Rose have crushed Bayern twice in a row. The Bavarians might very properly want one other of Musiala’s awe-inspiring performances.