Musialowski
- Thread starter Squiggles
- Start date
- Latest activity Latest activity:
- Status
Looks like a handful... Hope he can step up, and is given chance at first team football in a couple of years in the League cup
Nemeth? He's now 32 if you want to feel old.
Yesil?
Illori is his name.... and he’s due to play for the reserves any day now
I happened to google Teixeira the other day, 28!! There’s something fishy about the last 10 years, way too fast.
From Caoimhe O'Neill on the Athletic
At Liverpool, they call Fabinho “the lighthouse” but one thing the defensive midfielder didn’t see coming in training last week was Mateusz Musialowski. Not many people do.
The 17-year-old winger from Poland was among the small group of academy players called up to first-team training during the international break. And just as he has done for Liverpool Under-18s this season, Musialowski made a strong impression — at one point slipping the ball through Fabinho’s legs for a nutmeg.
At the start of this week when some of the youth players returned to the academy, Musialowski was retained by Jurgen Klopp to continue training with senior players. Those close to him say shouts of “well done” from the Liverpool boss last week had served as further encouragement to a player who has tried to model his game on one of the game’s true stars. It is this, coupled with his prodigious talent, that has earned Musialowski his “Polish Messi” nickname.
You would think such a tag would add pressure to the young player’s shoulders. But since joining Liverpool, Musialowski has looked unfazed by the hype that swirls around him. He can drop his shoulder and dribble beyond opponents like he is a commuter rushing to work on a busy street. The ball at times looks to be magnetised to his feet as he races towards goal, weaving in and out of the opposition.
“We don’t have many players like him who are fearless on the pitch and can dribble past two or three players. He’s not a player Polish people are used to. He’s got the wow factor,” Przemek Soczynski, a UK-based scout for the Polish FA, tells The Athletic.
The forward, who will likely return to the under-18s set-up for their upcoming FA Youth Cup encounter with Manchester United on Saturday, can play anywhere across the front line or further back in a playmaking capacity. Since joining Liverpool he has scored seven goals and completed two assists in 16 appearances for Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s side.
It is no wonder then to hear Musialowski had clubs in Poland scrambling for his signature in his youth but it wasn’t until he attended a soccer camp in Bristol a few summers ago that clubs outside of his homeland started to take note. Musialowski was visiting family friends in the south west of England and to keep the football-mad teen occupied he was enrolled in a summer training camp.
His talent didn’t go unnoticed with a scout from Arsenal said to have spotted Musialowski, seemingly putting the London club in pole position to sign him. Arsenal’s academy was in a state of flux, though, with Per Mertesacker taking over from Andries Jonker as academy manager, and a move never materialised.
By this time, clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Anderlecht had all shown interest in the attacker. Liverpool had noticed him on international duty and offered him a week-long trial in the summer of 2020. Within days of him being at the academy, they had offered to take him on permanently. Unsure whether Arsenal would retain their interest, and having enjoyed his time on Merseyside, Musialowski joined Liverpool.
With his mum, dad and sister all still residing in Poland, Musialowski made the move to Merseyside alone and is currently living with a host family in the city. It has been a difficult time to join a new club in a new country with his family unable to visit him but Musialowski has settled in well and has hit the ground running since arriving last summer.
His standout strike so far came away to Newcastle United’s under-18s. He weaved his way through five opposition players before blasting his strike into the corner. It was a goal that when shared to Liverpool’s social media accounts hit viral status almost instantly.
“A lot of people do call him the Polish Messi,” Soczynski says, whose full title is the UK-based talent ID coordinator for the Polish Football Association. “A lot of people are very excited about him.
“Football scouts and those who watch youth games all knew about him. They knew he was a talented, special player but for many people in Poland, they had no idea a player like this existed. It was a big surprise for them to watch the video of his goal on Liverpool’s Twitter. They didn’t know about him. Now they do.”
Soczynski, whose job it is to keep tabs on all Polish youth players based in England, reveals how the media coverage of Musialowski back home in Poland has ramped up since his goal against Newcastle, which he followed up with a brilliant double against Sutton United in the FA Youth Cup third round.
“He wasn’t known on the bigger scene but now I think every single media outlet posted something. He’s had a lot of publicity after those goals,” Soczynski says. “What I like about him is he looks like he is having fun on the pitch. I believe he wants to be this type of player who gets the ball and does what he wants to do and no one will stop him. If he wants to dribble past three players or if he wants to shoot at goal he will. He has a great mentality.”
Musialowski recently earned a call-up to Poland’s under-19s, but the camp was later cancelled due to the pandemic. The feeling among many is that if he stays on this current trajectory, it won’t be long before he earns his first senior Poland cap. “What he’s showing is that he is a top prospect,” he adds. “I don’t think many people expected this. In Poland, we knew he was an exceptional talent but he was never challenged at this level.”
Before arriving at Liverpool, the young forward first played for Ajaks Czestochowa. He then moved to Rakow Czestochowa and later enjoyed a short loan spell at Skra Czestochowa in 2015 before eventually joining SMS Lodz. Those who followed his progress say Musialowski scored multiple goals with ease each week but it is was expected that the step up in class after leaving Poland would challenge him.
“So coming to one of the best academies in the UK and continuing to play that well, I think it surprised many people,” Soczynski explains. “Again I didn’t expect that he would stand out that much. I’ve seen all of his games this season and you can see his start was a little slow but now you can see he is feeling comfortable in the team and the team trusts him more. It is going really well.”
In 2016, Musialowski played in a 12-0 win for Poland’s under-14s against Lithuania. The Polish FA President, Zbigniew Boniek, spotted him at the game and shared a message to Twitter, which told Polish football fans to remember Musialowski’s name.
Watching him play for the first time seems to have that effect on people. Krzysztof Lazik was a youth coach at Rakow Czestochowa and remembers first meeting Musialowski when he was aged nine.
“What can I say? He was still a child but you could stand for hours and watch him play football,” Lazik tells The Athletic. “Mateusz has always stood out from his age group and even higher. At the club, he often played with the older groups. Compared to his peers, Mati was a player distinguished by his speed, technique and tenacity.”
His slaloming display at Newcastle came as no great shock to Lazik. He had coached Musialowski for five years and knows exactly what he is capable of. He himself struggled to win the ball back off the young prodigy.
“It was a beautiful goal at a world-class level. Mateusz is a very young player with great potential,” he says.
“Now he trains under the supervision of professionals at one of the best clubs in the world. He showed his skills and what he can do. I have seen such moments from him before and I saw for myself how fast and agile he is — despite my best efforts, he always beat me,” says Lazik, who keeps in regular contact with Musialowski and his parents.
“Mateusz is a young man who knows what he wants to do in his life. He has his purpose and pursues it meticulously. He is immensely devoted to his passion and to making his dreams come true.”
Without the injured Robert Lewandowski at Wembley this evening, Poland’s attack will be severely diminished against England. It remains to be seen whether Musialowski will one day be considered as important to his nation’s fortunes.
Soczynski — who also runs a website called Skauci.uk, dedicated to keeping track of Polish players in the UK — is eager to point out that for all the hype, to succeed at the highest level, even a player of Musialowski’s ability has plenty of development ahead of him.
“He needs to develop his tactical skills, making decisions on the pitch. As sometimes he is losing the ball but at this age, he is being given the green light to dribble past those players. But at the under-23s or in the first-team they need him to make better decisions,” Soczynski says.
“He needs to develop every single aspect of his game. He needs to have the hunger to become Robert Lewandowski. It didn’t happen overnight for Lewandowski. Before he made it he was working hard, working hard, working hard. Even now at Bayern Munich, he’s at the very top but he is still improving his game. Mateusz needs to work hard. He cannot believe ‘I’m the best’ because to be the best you have to keep working to move ahead of the others.
“It’s hard to predict what will happen for him in the future. I hope he will stay free from injuries and keep developing. At the moment he is proving himself at under-18s level. We next need to see him do that in Premier League 2 and then get a chance in the League Cup, FA Cup or maybe go out on loan. I am excited about him but I know we need to stay calm as well. He is still developing.”
While also recognising the need to stay calm, Lazik thinks Musialowski has the ability to propel himself into the first team in the coming years or maybe even sooner. “I am convinced that it will happen faster than everyone thinks,” he says. “I believe it will and I wish him that.”
At Liverpool, they call Fabinho “the lighthouse” but one thing the defensive midfielder didn’t see coming in training last week was Mateusz Musialowski. Not many people do.
The 17-year-old winger from Poland was among the small group of academy players called up to first-team training during the international break. And just as he has done for Liverpool Under-18s this season, Musialowski made a strong impression — at one point slipping the ball through Fabinho’s legs for a nutmeg.
At the start of this week when some of the youth players returned to the academy, Musialowski was retained by Jurgen Klopp to continue training with senior players. Those close to him say shouts of “well done” from the Liverpool boss last week had served as further encouragement to a player who has tried to model his game on one of the game’s true stars. It is this, coupled with his prodigious talent, that has earned Musialowski his “Polish Messi” nickname.
You would think such a tag would add pressure to the young player’s shoulders. But since joining Liverpool, Musialowski has looked unfazed by the hype that swirls around him. He can drop his shoulder and dribble beyond opponents like he is a commuter rushing to work on a busy street. The ball at times looks to be magnetised to his feet as he races towards goal, weaving in and out of the opposition.
“We don’t have many players like him who are fearless on the pitch and can dribble past two or three players. He’s not a player Polish people are used to. He’s got the wow factor,” Przemek Soczynski, a UK-based scout for the Polish FA, tells The Athletic.
The forward, who will likely return to the under-18s set-up for their upcoming FA Youth Cup encounter with Manchester United on Saturday, can play anywhere across the front line or further back in a playmaking capacity. Since joining Liverpool he has scored seven goals and completed two assists in 16 appearances for Marc Bridge-Wilkinson’s side.
It is no wonder then to hear Musialowski had clubs in Poland scrambling for his signature in his youth but it wasn’t until he attended a soccer camp in Bristol a few summers ago that clubs outside of his homeland started to take note. Musialowski was visiting family friends in the south west of England and to keep the football-mad teen occupied he was enrolled in a summer training camp.
His talent didn’t go unnoticed with a scout from Arsenal said to have spotted Musialowski, seemingly putting the London club in pole position to sign him. Arsenal’s academy was in a state of flux, though, with Per Mertesacker taking over from Andries Jonker as academy manager, and a move never materialised.
By this time, clubs such as Liverpool, Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Anderlecht had all shown interest in the attacker. Liverpool had noticed him on international duty and offered him a week-long trial in the summer of 2020. Within days of him being at the academy, they had offered to take him on permanently. Unsure whether Arsenal would retain their interest, and having enjoyed his time on Merseyside, Musialowski joined Liverpool.
With his mum, dad and sister all still residing in Poland, Musialowski made the move to Merseyside alone and is currently living with a host family in the city. It has been a difficult time to join a new club in a new country with his family unable to visit him but Musialowski has settled in well and has hit the ground running since arriving last summer.
His standout strike so far came away to Newcastle United’s under-18s. He weaved his way through five opposition players before blasting his strike into the corner. It was a goal that when shared to Liverpool’s social media accounts hit viral status almost instantly.
“A lot of people do call him the Polish Messi,” Soczynski says, whose full title is the UK-based talent ID coordinator for the Polish Football Association. “A lot of people are very excited about him.
“Football scouts and those who watch youth games all knew about him. They knew he was a talented, special player but for many people in Poland, they had no idea a player like this existed. It was a big surprise for them to watch the video of his goal on Liverpool’s Twitter. They didn’t know about him. Now they do.”
Soczynski, whose job it is to keep tabs on all Polish youth players based in England, reveals how the media coverage of Musialowski back home in Poland has ramped up since his goal against Newcastle, which he followed up with a brilliant double against Sutton United in the FA Youth Cup third round.
“He wasn’t known on the bigger scene but now I think every single media outlet posted something. He’s had a lot of publicity after those goals,” Soczynski says. “What I like about him is he looks like he is having fun on the pitch. I believe he wants to be this type of player who gets the ball and does what he wants to do and no one will stop him. If he wants to dribble past three players or if he wants to shoot at goal he will. He has a great mentality.”
Musialowski recently earned a call-up to Poland’s under-19s, but the camp was later cancelled due to the pandemic. The feeling among many is that if he stays on this current trajectory, it won’t be long before he earns his first senior Poland cap. “What he’s showing is that he is a top prospect,” he adds. “I don’t think many people expected this. In Poland, we knew he was an exceptional talent but he was never challenged at this level.”
Before arriving at Liverpool, the young forward first played for Ajaks Czestochowa. He then moved to Rakow Czestochowa and later enjoyed a short loan spell at Skra Czestochowa in 2015 before eventually joining SMS Lodz. Those who followed his progress say Musialowski scored multiple goals with ease each week but it is was expected that the step up in class after leaving Poland would challenge him.
“So coming to one of the best academies in the UK and continuing to play that well, I think it surprised many people,” Soczynski explains. “Again I didn’t expect that he would stand out that much. I’ve seen all of his games this season and you can see his start was a little slow but now you can see he is feeling comfortable in the team and the team trusts him more. It is going really well.”
In 2016, Musialowski played in a 12-0 win for Poland’s under-14s against Lithuania. The Polish FA President, Zbigniew Boniek, spotted him at the game and shared a message to Twitter, which told Polish football fans to remember Musialowski’s name.
Watching him play for the first time seems to have that effect on people. Krzysztof Lazik was a youth coach at Rakow Czestochowa and remembers first meeting Musialowski when he was aged nine.
“What can I say? He was still a child but you could stand for hours and watch him play football,” Lazik tells The Athletic. “Mateusz has always stood out from his age group and even higher. At the club, he often played with the older groups. Compared to his peers, Mati was a player distinguished by his speed, technique and tenacity.”
His slaloming display at Newcastle came as no great shock to Lazik. He had coached Musialowski for five years and knows exactly what he is capable of. He himself struggled to win the ball back off the young prodigy.
“It was a beautiful goal at a world-class level. Mateusz is a very young player with great potential,” he says.
“Now he trains under the supervision of professionals at one of the best clubs in the world. He showed his skills and what he can do. I have seen such moments from him before and I saw for myself how fast and agile he is — despite my best efforts, he always beat me,” says Lazik, who keeps in regular contact with Musialowski and his parents.
“Mateusz is a young man who knows what he wants to do in his life. He has his purpose and pursues it meticulously. He is immensely devoted to his passion and to making his dreams come true.”
Without the injured Robert Lewandowski at Wembley this evening, Poland’s attack will be severely diminished against England. It remains to be seen whether Musialowski will one day be considered as important to his nation’s fortunes.
Soczynski — who also runs a website called Skauci.uk, dedicated to keeping track of Polish players in the UK — is eager to point out that for all the hype, to succeed at the highest level, even a player of Musialowski’s ability has plenty of development ahead of him.
“He needs to develop his tactical skills, making decisions on the pitch. As sometimes he is losing the ball but at this age, he is being given the green light to dribble past those players. But at the under-23s or in the first-team they need him to make better decisions,” Soczynski says.
“He needs to develop every single aspect of his game. He needs to have the hunger to become Robert Lewandowski. It didn’t happen overnight for Lewandowski. Before he made it he was working hard, working hard, working hard. Even now at Bayern Munich, he’s at the very top but he is still improving his game. Mateusz needs to work hard. He cannot believe ‘I’m the best’ because to be the best you have to keep working to move ahead of the others.
“It’s hard to predict what will happen for him in the future. I hope he will stay free from injuries and keep developing. At the moment he is proving himself at under-18s level. We next need to see him do that in Premier League 2 and then get a chance in the League Cup, FA Cup or maybe go out on loan. I am excited about him but I know we need to stay calm as well. He is still developing.”
While also recognising the need to stay calm, Lazik thinks Musialowski has the ability to propel himself into the first team in the coming years or maybe even sooner. “I am convinced that it will happen faster than everyone thinks,” he says. “I believe it will and I wish him that.”
There's a couple of well performing youngsters at the moment and it frustrates me that we don't ever look to give them 5/10 mins in a game, especially when we have fuck all options to change things up.
Great for the 'future' but I would like us to start giving more junior talent a chance in our underperforming team.
Great for the 'future' but I would like us to start giving more junior talent a chance in our underperforming team.
Yep. Kaide Gordon is another which is getting a lot of positive reports. Along with Balagizi who's already been mentioned.
The days of £10m are gone. The days of £20m are here to stay!
- Status
