It is nothing new that players with two passes are drawn between two national teams. What is special here is that England lost the opportunity to call up one of Europe’s greatest attacking talents to the national team squad. Joakim Löw reveals how he persuaded Jamal Musiala to opt out of England.
Musiala was born in Germany, but had lived most of his life in England. It was therefore only natural for Musiala to play for the England national team. In 2021, however, the young player chose to make his debut on the German national team and stopped the possibility of playing for the Three Lions.
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England have plenty of good attacking midfielders, but very few can match Musiala. At 21 years young, he has 177 appearances for Bayern with 55 goals.
It was former German national team coach Joakim Löw who broke his principle and with that persuaded Musial in 2021 to choose Germany.
“Oliver Bierhoff and I went to Munich in the spring of 2021 and talked to him and his mother. He grew up in England, had his friends there and developed as a player there. He was already thinking about whether he wanted to play for England or Germany,” Löw begins to Kicker.
“It was the only time in my time as national team coach that I made a promise to a player. Even though he wasn’t a regular at Bayern, I told him that if he chose us, he would definitely play in Euro 2021,” Löw reveals.
Musiala was persuaded, got two games in the European Championships and the rest is history. For England, without a doubt, a big sporting loss. Towards the 2026 World Cup, Musiala is one of the players Nagelsmann is building the attack around at Die Mannschaft.
