Report: Germany to hold talks with Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala amidst England call-up worries

The international tug of war between England and Germany is starting to heat up. Bayern Munich winger Jamal Musiala, only 17-years-old, is coveted by both national teams as he slowly finds his feet at the German Rekordmeister. A few days ago, we had reports that Jogi Low was ready to offer Musiala a spot in the upcoming international break.

Now, Sport1’s Florian Plettenberg has revealed the reason for their urgency — England boss Gareth Southgate has already called up Musiala three times. The winger has rejected each callup so far, but could cave any moment.

Inevitably, we see Low throwing a wrench into the works by not having made a decision yet. Either this man has genuinely taken leave of all his senses, or he’s too scared to leave out one of the half-dozen mediocre footballers he keeps calling up every break. Julian Draxler is probably sweating right now.

Getting Musiala would be a massive coup for both Germany and Bayern. Germany lack a true successor to Thomas Muller in the middle, and Musiala seems to have the right blend of tenacity, intelligence, and technical ability to do the job with Serge Gnabry and Leroy Sane on either side of him. In addition, the DFB have a golden opportunity to bring up another Bayern golden generation — a full team of stars concentrated at one club — the same thing that won them the World Cup in 2014.

For Bayern, getting Musiala to commit to Germany might help keep him at the club indefinitely, since it’ll be harder for a Premier League team to tempt him away somewhere down the line. Playing in an environment with your national team teammates is a heck of an incentive for a player to stick around.

Hopefully, the DFB manage to pull this off. These past few months, they’ve proven themselves spineless and incompetent. That perception won’t go away any time soon, but it certainly won’t get any better if they somehow manage to let Musiala get away.