At just 19, Jamal Musiala has developed into a regular player and top performer at FC Bayern. The German international is undoubtedly one of the most promising young talents in world football. Bayern’s technical director Marco Neppe has now for the first time commented in detail on the signing of the offensive all-rounder and emphasised how much Bayern really wanted to bring Musiala to Munich from the start
While Hasan Salihamidžić is at the forefront as FC Bayern’s sporting director, Marco Neppe, as a technical director, is more of a man in the background. However, the 36-year-old plays a key role in Munich, especially when it comes to signings. Neppe is something like the ‚player whisperer‘ , and was also instrumental in Jamal Musiala’s transfer coup
Musiala moved from Chelsea to the FC Bayern Campus in the summer of 2019 at the tender age of 16. In an interview with Sky Germany , Neppe revealed that the Munich team first became aware of the top talent in 2018 as part of a national tournament. According to Neppe, there were two players who immediately caught the eye at the Paris tournament: Musiala and Jude Bellingham. Both played for England U16s at the time: ‚Jamal showed skills back then that he is now showing in the Bundesliga. He impressed with his incredible feel for the ball. You could see his enjoyment of the game in almost every action he took. That was just good. It was a pleasure to watch him play football,‘ Neppe recalled
‚I remember the first conversation with Musiala very well‘
Shortly after the first live scouting, Bayern quickly agreed that they absolutely wanted to sign the player: ‚We immediately agreed that we would do everything we could to bring him to Bayern. I had a very interesting meeting in London, was able to get to know his family and also had conversations with him‘
According to Neppe, Musiala was very reserved back then and had little to say. What convinced the talent scout, however, was the teenager’s mindset: ‚Jamal wasn’t very talkative, but his statements were so clear and so concise that at least one or two statements didn’t leave me alone on the flight back to Munich to have. That was formative and spoke for him and his ambitions. It gave me a good feeling about how he ticks and what ambitious path he wants to go‘
In the end, Bayern were able to convince Musiala to switch to the German record champions. FCB paid 200,000€ as a fee to Chelsea FC and has probably made one of the best transfers in the club’s history. The market value of the young exceptional player has risen to 80m€ in the past three years – and this trend continues to rise sharply
