England manager Gareth Southgate admits he wanted Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala to play for England.
The 19-year-old has chosen Germany as his national team, and is likely to play against England for Germany on Tuesday in the UEFA Nations League.
Musiala was born in Germany, but has a British-Nigerian father and moved to England with his family when he was seven.
“We’d have liked him to stay [with England] for certain,” Southgate admitted in his pre-match press conference.
“But when you’re training at Bayern Munich every day and you’re surrounded by Bayern Munich and German players, then that’s a little bit more challenging and of course his family have those strong ties.
“We enjoyed working with him when he was in our junior teams. He was a really nice boy to work with. We knew he was going to be, and he is, a good player.
“So yes we would have liked him for sure but we’ve got lots of these situations now in England – I’m sure Germany have got the same – where players can play for a number of different countries and sometimes your heart is going to take you somewhere else. We have complete respect for that.
“It’s nice to see him doing well, having met him first off when he was about 13 or 14. So I’m really pleased for him that that’s working well. Tomorrow I don’t care less, but generally I’m pleased to see him doing well.”
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