Jamal Musiala: the Bundesliga wonderkid BETTER than Jude Bellingham

Stuart Telford

• 10 Nov 2022 10:07 GMT
• 3 min read

Jude Bellingham has been linked with moves to Real Madrid, Manchester City and others, but it is his former England under-21 teammate Jamal Musiala who has been shining brightest in the Bundesliga this season.

Bellingham and Musiala are childhood friends, and were England international teammates up until under-21 level, at which point Musiala changed allegiance to Germany with his Bayern Munich teammates in his ear following his summer 2019 switch from Chelsea.

Musiala is Stuttgart-born but speaks with a distinctly London accent having lived there from the age of seven, but regardless of who he lines up for at the upcoming World Cup in Qatar, the youngster is fast becoming Bayern's best player at the tender age of 19.

READ: Jamal Musiala fuels talk of Real Madrid move

Musiala scored the opener as Bayern thrashed Werder Bremen 6-1 on Tuesday, meaning he has found the target in each of the first 14 rounds of fixtures in the Bundesliga this season. It is the best run of any teenager in German top-flight history, and he doesn't even play up front!

Yes, Musiala operates in the final third, but Sadio Made and latterly Eric-Maxim Choupo-Moting have been the men tasked with trying fill the Robert Lewandowski-shaped void in Bayern's attack following the Pole's €50m move to Barcelona this summer. Musiala tends to operate as a No.10, if not drifting in from the left flank.

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"I love scoring goals," he said recently when asked if he could succeed Lewandowski as the league's top goalscorer despite not playing on the shoulder of the last defender. "Top scorer is a good target. I don't run away from such challenges."

READ: Jude Bellingham: Ranking the contenders to land Dortmund star

Bellingham, in his defence, is a fine player in his own right, and has scored nine goals in all competitions - three of them in the Bundesliga - from a deeper starting position than Musiala.

The Borussia Dortmund and England midfielder deserved immense credit for his performances with both club and country this season, but if he is worth €100m plus to his next club, Musiala should command easily as much.