Jamal Musiala was born in Stuttgart, his mother is German and his father is Nigerian-British, but he has an English passport, which made him a footballer eligible for three different countries. He himself recognized it in 2021. “I have a heart that beats for Germany and another that beats for England,” he said at the time.
In the end, he opted for the Mannschaft and the former coach of the German team had a lot to do with that outcome: Joachim Löw. A talk between the two ended up tipping the balance. “He grew up in England, he had his friends there and he played for a long time, he did all his training. He thought about whether he wanted to play for England or Germany,” says Löw in SWR Sport.
It was the only time I did it with a player. I promised him, although I was not yet a starter at Bayern Munich, that I would be in the Euro 2021
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It was then that Joachim had to give the rest and, seeing Musiala’s talent, he was forced to do something he had never done before for any player. “Oliver Bierhoff and I went to Munich and spoke with him and, of course, also with his mother. It was the only time I did it with a player. I promised him, even though he was not a starter at Bayern Munich yet, that I would be in the Euro 2021 in the summer if he chose us,” recalls the former coach.
A debut against Iceland
And Jamal chose the Mannschaft. “It was not an easy decision, but I feel that the right thing to do is play for Germany,” Jamal explained some time ago, who debuted with the senior team in the international break in March 2021 against Iceland, in a qualifying match for the World Cup in Qatar. .
Since then, Musiala has become one of Germany’s benchmarks. In fact, he became, in one of the numerous records he has broken at the club and national team level, the youngest player in the history of the German team to reach 25 senior international caps at just a few years old.
7-1 to Brazil… and they could have been more
Joachim Löw also referred in the interview with SWR Sport to the unforgettable match on July 8, 2014, when Germany beat Brazil in the World Cup semifinals: 7-1. The former coach believes that the victory could have been even greater.
I thought: ‘My God, we could have created many more chances.’
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“No, it wasn’t the perfect match. I recently watched from minute 30 to minute 70, that is, from 5-0 to 6-0. And we definitely weren’t good in that period of time. We missed a lot of opportunities. I thought : ‘My God, we could have created many more chances,'” says Löw.
