Bayern Munich of Germany dazzler, Jamal Musial has been ranked highest in a survey of Nigerian-born players shining at this year’s FIFA World Cup after opting for other countries, despite featuring for England at junior level.
Sports247 reports that, while the major attention at the ongoing FIFA World Cup has been on Michael Olise, who joined Munich from Crystal Palace, the latest survey indicates that Musiala is the lad England miss most, because he featured for their youth squads.
In the survey by UK’s Daily Mail, Musiala, who played for Chelsea’s youth squads before moving to Germany, tops the list of ‘would have been England senior stars,’ followed by USA’s Folarin Balogun, who was groomed in Arsenal’s Hale End Academy.
Next in line is another former Chelsea youth team player, Carney Chukwuemeka, who achieved 28 appearances with Borussia Dortmund of Germany this season and is featuring at this Mundial for Austria, coached by ex-Manchester United boss, Ralf Rangnick.
Chukwuemeka played half an hour in Austria’s opening 3-1 win over debuting Jordan, before featuring for six minutes of their 2-0 defeat by three-time champions, Argentina, who triumphed with Lionel Messi’s record-breaking double.
Dramatically, nothing is stated about Olise, as he never played for England at youth level, having instead started out with France from the under-18 cadre at the 2019 Toulon Tournament, where he debuted on June 2nd, 2019 versus Qatar.
In March 2021, Olise was named as a standby for Nigeria’s Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers against Benin Republic and Lesotho, but did not feature, leaving him free for France exactly a year later and debut at U20 level versus Faroe Islands.
On the other hand, Musiala was born in Stuttgart, Germany, to his Nigerian-British father, Daniel Richard and German mother with Polish roots, Carolin Musiala, who he lived with in Fulda until the age of seven, before moving to England.
He was in England for the rest of his childhood and was in Chelsea’s academy for some years, during which time he played for both Germany and England youth teams, before opting for his country of birth on February 24th, 2021.
At the age of 16, Musiala and his mother returned to Germany because of Brexit, after which he subsequently received his first call up to the senior team and made his debut on March 25th, 2021 as a 79th minute sub in a 3-0 win against Iceland.
Musial has since achieved top marks at senior level with Germany, whose iconic jersey number 10 he now proudly dons, thereby making him the biggest former England youth international not playing for The Three Lions at this year’s World Cup.
Daily Mail’s citation for Musiala stated, “Undoubtedly, the most high-profile of these players is Bayern Munich and Germany ace Jamal Musiala, who in 2021 decided that his international future lay with the four-time World Cup winners.
“Despite making 19 appearances for England across their youth age group teams, in what he described as ‘not an easy decision,’ the former Chelsea youth product was persuaded after meeting with Germany’s then-manager Joachim Low.
“(The German team’s then coach) outlined a clear plan for him in the senior set-up and Musiala’s decision quickly paid off with a call-up to Euro 2020, where he became Germany’s youngest ever player to feature at a tournament.
“He has since represented Germany at the 2022 World Cup, 2024 European Championship – where he picked up a share of the golden boot – and this year’s World Cup (where he) netted in Germany’s 7-1 thumping over minnows Curacao.”
