Michael Olise is lighting up the Bundesliga alongside Harry Kane - and could even be Liverpool's long-term successor to Mohamed Salah
Michael Richards remembers the first time he saw Michael Olise. It was a Saturday morning, and he was coaching in Hayes, on the outskirts of west London.
“He really was an unselfish player – if I was six, seven and I had the ability he had, I would be trying to take everybody on, wanting to do it all myself.”
It is a story that bears repeating, because Olise “scored a lot of goals, but he probably set up even more than he scored”. In 18 months at Bayern Munich, that reputation has followed the French international – 11 assists for Harry Kane, five for Jamal Musiala, three for Serge Gnabry. Olise’s own record is impressive enough, 25 goals in 65 games, that he has been sized up by Liverpool as a long-term successor to Mo Salah.
The i Paper understands there is no release clause in his Bayern contract – reports of a clause to be activated in 2026 were wide of the mark – with his current deal running until 2029. Any Liverpool bid, or indeed from rival suitors Real Madrid, would have to hit €100m (£87m).
Michael Olise at Hayes, top right (Photo: Michael Richards)
In other words, the German champions are in an exceptionally strong position, having only signed him from Crystal Palace for £50m in 2024. “He’s arguably the best player in the Bundesliga right now, alongside Harry Kane,” says German football commentator and journalist Constantin Eckner.
“He fits well into Bayern’s current system because he’s a left-footer playing on the right, which he also did for Crystal Palace. It wouldn’t be correct to compare him to Arjen Robben per se, but of course Robben played on the right as a left-footer and always tried to drive inside and score a curler or find someone else. Olise also does that quite well.”
The first impression he made in Germany was a little less striking. He came across as reserved, timid, not necessarily a future Ballon d’Or nominee – this season, he was ranked in the top 30 footballers in the world for the first time.
Yet Olise’s years in London made him plenty of friends at Bayern – Jamal Musiala, another Chelsea graduate (who also declined to play for England), Kane, and at one stage Eric Dier, before he left for Monaco. Kane operates as the No 9, with Gnabry behind him, Olise on the right and Luis Diaz on the left.
At youth level, Olise had always stood out, even while playing against Bukayo Saka’s Greenford Celtic with his grassroots team.
MUNICH, GERMANY - SEPTEMBER 17: Michael Olise of FC Bayern Muenchen reacts during the UEFA Champions League 2025/26 League Phase MD1 match between FC Bayern M??nchen and Chelsea FC at Football Arena Munich on September 17, 2025 in Munich, Germany. (Photo by Daniel Kopatsch/Getty Images)
Olise has been ‘the Bundesliga’s best player’ this season (Photo: Getty)
On one occasion, Hayes were 2-0 down at half-time, with the Olise family running late because they had got lost. When he turned up at the break, he scored a hat-trick. On another day, he scored from the halfway line. “I think I had a queue of about three, four, five scouts waiting to walk over one by one, to ask if they could go and speak to his parents,” laughs Richards.
“A few people have asked, ‘what made him special at that age?’” says Sean Conlon, who worked with Olise as a seven-year-old at football coaching company We Make Footballers. “His body mechanics were perfect for that age of football – he was like a gazelle. He would just glide across the pitch. He could get from one side of the pitch to the other in a split second, very graceful.”
Tottenham and Arsenal were the first clubs to talent-spot him, before he joined Chelsea’s academy until he was let go as a teenager.
“It’s a key part of what changed him and made him who he is now because he got his head down,” adds Conlon. “It’s worked out for him to become one of the best players in the world. I remember saying to him, ‘you’re 14 now, in four years’ time you want to be 18 and making anyone that didn’t believe in you regret it.”
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After Chelsea, Olise went back to playing grassroots, spent a year at Manchester City and then “knuckled down” at Reading, where he was named Young Player of the Year in his final season before joining Palace. They might be accustomed to selling on talent at Selhurst Park – Wilfried Zaha, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Eberechi Eze – but staff still regard Olise as “one that got away”.
Hayes very nearly had a similar story. Olise’s mum first saw an advert for football sessions in a local newspaper and rang the number – but Richards was out, busy watching Brentford play.
So he wrote her number down on the programme with a promise to ring back, before accidentally leaving it at the burger bar. Had she not rung again the following day, Olise would never have been signed. “That,” Richards says, “was nearly a very big mistake.”