Lothar Matthäus says Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala reminds him a lot himself

Jamal Musiala has been one of Bayern Munich’s impressive bright spots so far this season. The 17-year-old has certainly made the most of the opportunities he’s been given in Bayern’s senior team, having scored three times in the Bundesliga already from a total of eight appearances. He also made three appearances during the Champions League group stages.

Musiala is a bright and upcoming talent, and it’s likely we’ll continue to see more of him this season, especially with injuries within the squad and heavy fixture congestion. In a recent interview with Sky Germany (via Bundesliga.com), former Bayern and Die Mannschaft midfielder Lothar Matthäus said Musiala reminds him a lot of himself as a player.

A central midfielder himself, Matthäus draws a lot of comparisons between the way Musiala plays to the way he played during his career. Of course, we’ve seen Musiala play a handful of different positions already; attacking midfielder, attacking winger, and most recently in Bayern’s 1-1 draw at Union Berlin, as a more holding central midfielder.

“He reminds me a lot of another player,” Matthäus said, referring to himself when he was asked about Musiala. “Sometimes he plays as a six, sometimes eight or ten.”

Refreshingly, it’s also visibly evident just how much trust there is in Musiala from all of his teammates. Despite his young age and lack on continued experience in the first team, there’s never any sense of doubt from his teammates, which probably effects his confidence in a positive way.

“Jamal plays in Munich in a team packed with top players. He’s highly valued by these players too because he’s very calm on the ball and has a lot of quality on it. In one-on-one situations he’s difficult to stop as well,” Matthäus explained.

Photo by M. Donato/FC Bayern via Getty Images

With his hat-trick of goals so far this season, Musiala has also joined a prestigious list of players 17 years old that have scored at least three Bundesliga goals. He’s joined the list of Kai Havertz (four goals, Bayer Leverkusen), Timo Werner (four goals, RB Leipzig), and Christian Pulisic (three goals, Borussia Dortmund) that have all scored three goals at the age of 17. Of course, Havertz, Werner, and Pulisic all now play for Chelsea in the Premier League and Musiala doesn’t turn 18 until February of 2021, so he could easily get to more than four goals in the Bundesliga by then. Not to mention, Musiala also became Bayern’s youngest ever goal scorer in the Bundesliga with his goal in Bayern’s 8-0 destruction of Schalke on the opening day of the season.