Following the excitement and criticism over the exclusion of Bayern Munich’s national player Jamal Musiala from the Ballon d’Or, editor-in-chief Vincent Garcia of the magazine “France Football”, which awards the prestigious prize, has spoken out. In the weekend edition of the “Mediengruppe Münchner Merkur/tz” newspaper, he explained that Musiala’s talent was not being called into question just because the 21-year-old offensive player was not one of the 30 candidates that had been published.
“In fact, he was there in 2023 and was also nominated for the Kopa Trophy, which is awarded to the best young player. But like Jude Bellingham, his status has evolved and expectations were probably higher this year,” Garcia continued. “As a result, he was probably rated differently.”
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Musiala’s club reacted with great surprise to Musiala’s non-nomination. “I’m happy for every player who is nominated for the Ballon d’Or, but we at FC Bayern are very surprised that Jamal Musiala is missing from this list,” sporting director Max Eberl told the dpa, among other things. The Golden Ball is a special award in world football.
Clear words from Matthew
However, record international player Lothar Matthäus believes that Bayern also bears some of the responsibility. “With the kind of unrest that has prevailed at Bayern over the last two years, no player there can win the Ballon d’Or,” the ex-pro told Bild. In order for Musiala to get closer to his goal of winning this award, the club must be successful again. “And for that to happen, the Mia-san-mia feeling must grow again in the team, but also in the management, which has recently been completely lost,” said Matthäus.
Three main reasons why Musiala was not nominated
In his opinion, there are three main reasons why Musiala was not selected by the committee, explained the editor-in-chief of “France Football”: “Firstly, his lack of statistics in the Champions League, where he scored as many goals as Mathys Tel, for example. That is too little for a player of his calibre. He was also unconvincing in important matches such as the Champions League semi-final second leg against Real Madrid or the European Championship quarter-final against Spain, where his performances were not catastrophic but rather neutral.”
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