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Bayern Munich have been head over heels for a certain Chelsea academy sensation for the majority of last year, seeing multiple bids north of £30m getting rejected by the Blues.
Today, Bild reveals that Bayern have finally managed to get hold of a Chelsea “jewel”. But that jewel is not Callum Hudson-Odoi. It is instead a 16-year-old, apparently highly rated academy talent who was set to be part of the incoming first-year scholars group at Cobham, but apparently had other plans.
England and Germany U16s, was born in Germany, so is dual-eligible. Was meant to sign with the rest of the group yesterday but evidently had other plans.
— Chelsea Youth (@chelseayouth) July 2, 2019
His name is Jamal Musiala (ed.note: but it could be just about anything because none of us have ever heard of him), and he has signed a five-year professional contract with the Bundesliga champions — (ed.note: which is something not possible for him at Chelsea as in England, professional terms cannot be signed before age 17 and that first contract cannot be longer than 3 years).
Musiala, playing as an attacking midfielder or a forward, had already made three appearances for the U18 side last season. He has also played for both the English and German U16 national teams but a move to Bayern is likely to see him lean towards making his senior debut for Germany, his country of birth, in the future.
*** BILDplus Inhalt *** Sein Berater ist Hudson-Odois Bruder - Bayern holt Chelsea-Juwel! https://t.co/ePvDVNc0CJ #Sport #News
— BILD Sport (@BILD_Sport) July 2, 2019
Anyway, the most interesting bit from the report is that Musiala’s agent happens to be Callum Hudson-Odoi’s brother and agent, Bradley Hudson-Odoi. Is there something fishy about this move from Bayern then? Maybe, they, just like several German teams recently, are interested in the wealth of English talent like Jadon Sancho and Reiss Nelson coming out of the English academies. Or maybe not.
Chelsea, as evidenced by our current transfer ban, have not been above bending rules and trading on shaky moral or ethical grounds when it benefitted us. We have also signed talented youngsters along with siblings for the academy, as a deal sweetener or as a gesture for making the youngsters comfortable and settled in a new club in a new country — think Musonda, Dasilva, or even the Hazard brothers. Are Bayern doing business involving Bradley in the hope of influencing and attracting Callum Hudson-Odoi towards them?
Well, this one’s for the conspiracy theorists. Just need Callum to sign a new deal with Chelsea and save us from putting on our tin foil hats.