How USA teen superstar Yunus Musah slipped through Arsenal’s fingers

Born in New York City to Ghanaian parents, Musah moved to London at the age of nine and joined the Arsenal academy soon after.

Thu, 24 Nov, 2022 - 19:40

Nnamdi Onye, The Athletic

When Yunus Musah runs out for the United States to face England, the country where he spent his formative years, in the Wold Cup on Friday, Trevor Bumstead’s heart will be torn.

There will be pride at seeing one of his former charges making his mark on the grandest stage football has to offer, but there will also be a flicker of regret. Musah, after all, is the one that got away.

Bumstead was Musah’s under-16 coach during his time at Arsenal and helped oversee his rise into one of European football’s most exciting talents. Yet it is Spanish club Valencia, rather than the north Londoners, who are now reaping the rewards of his development.

Born in New York City to Ghanaian parents, Musah spent the majority of the first decade of his life in Italy — he began his footballing journey at Giorgione, a club in Italy’s far north east now playing in Serie D — before moving to London at the age of nine. He joined the Arsenal academy soon after and after a difficult start in the Hale End Academy, emerged as one of the brightest talents of his age group.

“The big thing you notice about Yunus is his smile,” Bumstead recalls. “He used to walk into a room and light it up. You couldn’t help but warm to him straight away.”

Not that Bumstead — who also worked as a youth coach at local neighbours West Ham United and Southend United — was oblivious to Musah’s gifts before they worked together. “I knew about him even before I joined Arsenal,” Bumstead says. “He was such a talented boy, he came into my age group when he was only 15. The rest of the team were all a year above but he could handle it well and enjoyed the challenge.

“He had a fantastic all-round game, and his physical attributes were outstanding. Yunus could sprint quickly and maintain those high-intensity sprints throughout a game.

“He was also fully committed to self-improvement and team performance. He was the first onto the training pitch and the last to leave, and was always excited to go and train. We had to pull him off the training pitch to get him to rest and recover at times and even with him playing a year up, he was the best player on the pitch most games.” There were many moments when Musah’s ability lit up the academy pitches of English football, but one game in particular stands out for Bumstead.

It was a Premier League Under-16 National Cup final at Boreham Wood’s Meadow Park against Chelsea, the other great powerhouse of youth team football in London.

“I heard that there were about 23 scouts that day with seven from other European clubs,” Bumstead says.

There was certainly no shortage of talent on display. Starring for the Chelsea team was Jamal Musiala, the striker who went on to sign for Bayern Munich and is now a key part of the Germany squad in Qatar. But there were others, too: Charlie Patino, still highly rated by Arsenal and currently on loan at Blackpool of the Championship; Omari Hutchinson, then at Arsenal but who has recently signed for Chelsea; and Luke Plange, who joined Crystal Palace last summer from Derby County.

Chelsea won that game, 5-2, but Musah performed well.

“That was one of the reasons (1st team football) I chose to move.I felt at the time that I wasn’t able to be in the AFC 1st-team so early.The team was really good & there was the chance to move to Valencia. Things turned out great."

- Yunus Musah on leaving Arsenal (@Dan_KP) pic.twitter.com/FvJNjCJAiY
— Doc (@karthikadhaigal) November 23, 2022

Everything appeared set for him to keep rising through the ranks at Arsenal, and a long-term contract was proposed in the summer of 2019, but Musah — then 16 — had other ideas.

He turned down that deal and opted instead to join Valencia. After a season in the B team, he graduated to the seniors in 2020 and has been there ever since. Musah now has 72 La Liga appearances to his name, playing as a box-to-box midfielder and making 10 La Liga starts already this season under manager Gennaro Gattuso, who knows a thing or two about playing in midfield from his own days with AC Milan and Italy.

“We were all disappointed when Yunus left,” Bumstead admits. “He wouldn’t tell me where he was going at the time but I used to tell him that if it’s somewhere hot, you’ve got to take me with you!”

It is not only Arsenal — where Musah retains many friends — who must feel as if they have let a precious talent slip through their fingers.

England, too, will have a sense of ‘What if?’, given he was their under-16s captain. In a parallel universe, he might be competing for a World Cup spot against the US with Jude Bellingham or Declan Rice; instead, he is a key part of Gregg Berhalter’s squad, having pledged his allegiance to the country in March 2021, despite attempts by England manager Gareth Southgate and the Football Association to get him to commit to them.

“Selfishly, I was disappointed that he chose the USA because he was the captain of the England Under-16s team at the time, but I knew his background and that he was eligible to play for several nations (Musah could also have played for Ghana and Italy) and it seems to have paid off so far,” Bumstead, 42, says. “Being English myself, I told him to imagine you could lift the World Cup with us! But I think he will be a major asset for the USA.“

That much should be evident on Friday, when Musah is likely to come face to face with another of his former Arsenal colleagues, Bukayo Saka (their paths did not cross regularly as Saka played a year above his age group). It will nevertheless be a source of pride to Bumstead that the hours spent on the training pitches of Hale End have yielded such spectacular rewards.

And who knows? A starring role for the Americans could yet prompt Premier League clubs into looking at the possibility of bringing Musah back to England.

“I think his style is suited to the Premier League, so it wouldn’t be a shock if he returns at some point,” Bumstead says. “You never know, if he has a good World Cup, I’m sure they’ll be a clamour of teams looking to sign him.

“This World Cup is just the start for Yunus and knowing him, he will be looking to make a real name for himself at this tournament. People talk about Jude Bellingham a lot and Yunus will certainly be involved in the same conversations as him very soon.”

This article originally appeared in The Athletic