Musiala's Chelsea exit 'like the Louvre losing the Mona Lisa' - Golden Boy founder

Cameron Smith

29 Sep 2023 04:28 CDT
3 min read

The founder of the Golden Boy award, Massimo Franchi, believes that Chelsea losing Jamal Musiala to Bayern Munich in 2019 is “like the Louvre losing the Mona Lisa.”

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The Germany international is one of the nominees for the 2023 Golden Boy following another exceptional year at Bayern, which included scoring the goal that secured their 11th consecutive Bundesliga title on the final day of last season.

However, it could have been so different as Musiala spent eight years in Chelsea’s academy between 2011 and 2019, before leaving for Bayern aged just 16.

Before signing professional terms with Chelsea, Musiala decided to leave Stamford Bridge in favour of joining Bayern. Ultimately, Chelsea had no say in the matter as Jody Morris revealed in 2022.

The former academy manager posted on Twitter: “Chelsea academy didn’t let him [Musiala] go, he wanted to leave and go to Bayern and they couldn’t do anything about it.”

While Chelsea were powerless in preventing Musiala from leaving the club, Franchi believes the German’s departure was “an incredible loss” for the Blues.

He recently told TZ: “I love him [Musiala]! I love his creative playing style. I really love this young man. The fact that FC Bayern grabbed him from Chelsea almost for free was incredibly clever.

“An incredible loss for the Londoners. It would be like the Louvre losing the Mona Lisa!”

Why does Musiala represent Germany at international level?

The midfielder was born in Germany and lived in the country until he was seven before moving to England.

Musiala, 20, now represents the country of his birth at international level, but he was capped by England’s U15 team at the age of 13 and even played for the Three Lions’ U21s before switching allegiance.

The Bayern star has 23 international caps for Germany, with one goal and three assists.