Jamal Musiala: Germany’s ‘future Messi’ battling for Euro 2024 Young Player of the Tournament

Jamal Musiala endured an injury-hit season with Bayern Munich, but he’s making up for lost time at Euro 2024.

The attacking midfielder was limited to just 20 Bundesliga starts in 2023/24, but made every minute count — chipping in with an 10 league goals and five assists.

And he’s making a similar impact for Germany, as they go in search of glory on home soil at Euro 2024.

Star qualities

Plays like: Lionel Messi

Germany captain Lothar Matthaus was effusive in his praise of Musiala during the 2022 World Cup.

“He [Musiala] can be the (Lionel) Messi of the future, he is excellent,” he said. “He is 19 years old, he is doing the things that will make him a top footballer. He has great passing, he is clever with his thinking and he loves football.”

Now 21, Musiala is certainly living up to the hype — registering 43 goals and 31 assists across 163 matches for Bayern Munich, having become the youngest player to reach a century of appearances for Die Roten.

Capable of playing on either flank or in a more central role, Musiala’s sublime dribbling skills have terrorised Bundesliga backlines since his debut in 2020.

Musiala has remarkable close control, creating carnage in opposition backlines as he draws in defenders before evading them in tight spaces. That was perfectly illustrated by the second of his two goals in a 5-2 victory over Darmstadt in March, when he skilfully glided past a host of players before slotting the ball neatly into the bottom right corner.

And the German is capable of powerful efforts, too, like his lashed near-post drive against Bochum in February.

With a combination of first-class finishing ability, creativity, quick feet and pace, Musiala has all the attributes to provide a major attacking threat.

International pedigree

Musiala has already made a significant impact at international level. He registered an assist in his first start for Germany back in 2021, before opening his account against North Macedonia aged just 18 years and 227 days.

That immediate impression saw the attacking midfielder called up to feature at Euro 2020, where he became the youngest player to appear at a major tournament for Die Mannschaft. Three consecutive starts at Qatar 2022 then solidified Musiala’s status as a mainstay in the national team, despite Germany’s disastrous group stage exit.

The past year has highlighted Musiala’s continued importance to Julian Nagelsmann’s Germany. Musiala started 2024 with just two goals from 25 appearances for Germany, alongside three assists.

He now has five goals and five assists from 33 caps. There were two assists in friendly wins over France and Netherlands to start 2024, before Musiala turned it on at Euro 2024.

The 21-year-old scored in each of Germany’s opening two games at Euro 2024, netting against Scotland and Hungary. After a blank against Switzerland, Musiala got himself back among the goals as Germany beat Denmark 2-0 in the last 16. Only Wayne Rooney (four at Euro 2004) has scored more goals in a single European Championship campaign aged 21 or under than Musiala.

He averages 0.89 goals per 90 minutes from 2.08 shots, while also creating 1.19 chances. Unsurprisingly, Musiala is in the top 10 for take-ons completed per 90 minutes with 3.27. But, overall, only two players have completed more take-ons than Musiala’s 11 so far — one behind Kylian Mbappe.

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Club season snapshot

Despite being restricted to 1,766 minutes of Bundesliga action, only Harry Kane (36) scored more league goals for Bayern Munich than Musiala in 2023/24 (10). That total averages out at an impressive 0.51 goals per 90, alongside a similarly commendable assist rate of 0.31 per 90.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, Bayern Munich’s speed merchant topped the charts for take-ons attempted (7.44) and completed (4.43) per match, as well as displaying plenty of end product throughout the campaign. Only three Bundesliga players completed more through-balls per 90 (0.36), while Musiala ranked inside the division’s top 10 for big chances created (0.61) per game.

He was also effective out of possession, winning possession 1.17 times per 90 in the final third — the fifth-most in Germany’s top flight.

Although the prodigious youngster did not make quite the same impact in the Champions League, he still scored twice and assisted one goal in 11 appearances in the competition. Those contributions included an individual effort against FC Copenhagen in the group stage, when Musiala’s determined solo run and finish opened the scoring for Die Roten in a 2-1 comeback victory. His performances helped Bayern reach the competition’s semi-finals, before narrowly losing 4-3 on aggregate to Real Madrid.

That defeat wrapped up a trophyless season for Musiala, who failed to add to his four Bundesliga titles and collection of cup honours.

He will be eager to make amends by winning the European Championships with Germany this summer.