When Southampton let an £83m star in the making leave as a boy
Southampton have garnered a reputation for being a hotbed for young talent to flourish over the years, with the likes of Alex-Oxlade Chamberlain, Gareth Bale and Theo Walcott all exploding into life in the men's game after starting out at St. Mary's.
Even now, Russell Martin has a whole plethora of exciting talents at his disposal down on the South Coast who are trying to help the Saints win an immediate promotion back up to the Premier League.
Raw gems such as Samuel Edozie, Shea Charles and Sekou Mara, who are all 21 years or younger, are playing key roles in the exciting brand of football being played by Southampton in the Championship alongside the more seasoned first-team faces such as Adam Armstrong and Jan Bednarek.
Sometimes, however, the Saints accidentally let a top young talent fall to the wayside which very much happened with this former academy man who now has the world at his feet playing in Europe.
Jamal Musiala's beginnings at Southampton
Remarkably, current Bayern Munich star Jamal Musiala was once on the books at Southampton in their academy structure before moving on to greater heights.
This was all the way back in 2010, with the Saints landing the German superstar as a wonderkid after leaving his native country behind for new opportunities.
His time at St. Mary's would be over in the blink of an eye, however, only on the youth roster at Southampton for a singular season before Chelsea snapped up the wide-eyed attacker. The rest, as they say, is history from a Saints point of view.
Nobody would have anticipated that Musiala would go on to become the unbelievable talent he is today when glancing back to his humble beginnings with the Championship club, leaving Martin's men to ponder what could have been if Chelsea hadn't come in and snatched him from their grasp as an unassuming boy.
Jamal Musiala's rise to stardom
Musiala would only make three appearances in the Stamford Bridge youth ranks before being head-hunted by Bayern, with the German giants only paying a compensation fee of £170k to tempt the starlet to move to the Allianz Arena in 2019.
As much as Southampton must be heavy with regret about the circumstances in which they waved goodbye to Musiala, Chelsea must really be seething at losing the fully-fledged Germany international considering how much his transfer value has skyrocketed since moving to Bavaria.
The 21-year-old attacker isn't the only notable name that Chelsea have got rid of that have since gone on to become elite footballers, with Kevin De Bruyne and Mohamed Salah to name a few ripping it up as world-class talents ever since they exited the restraints of the Blues.
Musiala, who has ended up switching national allegiances off the back of his move to the Bundesliga titans to Germany away from England, has equally never looked back.
Now, he is as crucial as £100m talisman Harry Kane is for Thomas Tuchel's men.
Starting off in the Bayern II side initially, Musiala was quickly bumped up to the senior fold when the German giants realised how much of a talent they truly had on their hands.
Jamal Musiala's increased transfer value in 2024
Now, Musiala has notched up an incredible 43 goals and 30 assists from 156 appearances for Bayern all whilst still only frighteningly being 21 years of age.
Dubbed as a "one-of-a-kind" star by ex-Bayern and Manchester United midfielder Owen Hargreaves, Musiala's deftness on the ball to twist and turn opposition defences for fun has also seen him be coined with the nickname "Bambi" by his adoring fans in Europe.
Musiala's numbers in the Bayern Munich senior team
Season
Games played
Goals
Assists
2023-24
31
12
7
2022-23
47
16
16
2021-22
40
8
6
2020-21
37
7
1
2019-20
1
0
0
Stats by Transfermarkt
As can be seen in the table above, Musiala's importance to his Bundesliga employers has only risen as he became more and more confident to strut this stuff and show off his unbelievable qualities that have – in tow – seen his transfer value rise exponentially.
In just five seasons, the once unproven starlet has gone from costing £170k to now being worth a ridiculous €96.7m (£83m) as per Football Transfers – making him Bayern's second most valuable player, just below the aforementioned ex-Tottenham Hotspur machine in Kane.
To further contextualise how much Musiala has skyrocketed into stardom, back at Southampton – where he once kicked a ball around as a child – see their most valued player come in at €20.6m (£18m) in former Manchester City goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu.
It would take an extortionate amount of money to ever get Musiala back on English soil to finally dazzle Premier League defences, but with news coming out of Bavaria suggesting that the 21-year-old has rejected a new contract in Munich recently, it could soon happen.
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No doubt the likes of mega-rich Man City will try and win the current Bayern number 42's services regardless, to make them even more of a force to be reckoned with.
Musiala's future in Munich
This could all just be unsubstantiated talk at the end of the day, with the £82.4k-per-week man a settled fixture in Tuchel's starting lineups at the moment.
But, there'll surely come a time where the Germany international fancies the prospect of setting the Premier League alight after making the Bundesliga his playground at points over the past few fruitful seasons.
Pep Guardiola's men would obviously be the frontrunners to land his coveted signature, with Musiala's current transfer worth – if he was to join the current top-flight champions – seeing him rank as Man City's third most expensive asset behind Erling Haaland and Phil Foden.
If this all plays out and Musiala does end up sending shockwaves through the footballing world with a move to the Etihad, the 21-year-old superstar could even face off against Southampton who would then be able to finally see how much of an exceptional talent their former academy player has become in the flesh.