We heard a little bit a few days ago from Levi Colwill about his friendship with Bayern Munich wonderkid, begun at Southampton and then forged at Chelsea, and coincidentally just a few days later Musiala has given his side of the story in a long read for the Players’ Tribune.
He had just moved to England from Germany with his family and joined the Saints academy. The first person he walked up to could have been anyone – what are the odds that they’d both end up being top class young players both considered among the best in their age group and position?
“I showed up on the first day of training and I was speaking 99% German. But you know how football is … it’s the universal language. I walked up to Levi, because I guess he looked nice, and I tried the best I could,” Musiala explains.
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Levi Colwill in action for Chelsea against Manchester United. (Photo by Darren Walsh/Chelsea FC)
Levi Colwill in a car talking about FIFA.
The corner flag at Stamford Bridge.
“Levi probably thought I was so weird, but we bonded over the game, and I started slowly learning English. You know what’s crazy? We even found out we had the exact same birthday. It was like fate, us becoming boys. We ended up moving to Chelsea together a few months later.”
Jamal Musiala, Levi Colwill and Harvey Vale as youngsters.
Jamal Musiala, Levi Colwill and Harvey Vale as youngsters.
Colwill friendship opens up door for unlikely Musiala return
After spending most of his development in our academy, Musiala left for Germany just as he reached the age where Chelsea fans were starting to get really excited about seeing him play in Blue. It’s a long standing dream for most of us to see him back one day, and perhaps his friendship with Colwill makes that a little more likely.
It would be insanely expensive, and we will certainly have to get ourselves back into the Champions League to make it happen – but it’s not impossible.