Sanjay Sathya

Jamal Musiala Wants to Ditch Bambi Nickname But Fans Aren’t Ready

Bayern Munich, Jamal Musiala

Germany’s Golden boy, Jamal Musiala is back in action after a long time. The entire world were praying for his speedy recovery, when he had one of the devastating injuries in recent times, during the Club world cup Quarter final game against PSG.

It is for a pretty obvious reason that no matter a fan of whichever team, everybody tend to like Musiala. His unique playstyle of dribbling through multiple players at once, brings to people the memory of somebody like Neymar.

But Musiala had been given a nick name, very specific, that he is now trying to outgrow.

Musiala has not made the starting XI this season in the Bundesliga yet, barring a UCL group stage game against PSV Eindhoven. Still, in the limited time frame he had appeared, he has made 2 assists and scored once in the Champions League.

But last Season, Musiala became the poster Boy of Bayern Munich, something that was on the bucket list of every Bayern fan.

Starting with the near successful 2024 Euro Campaign, being the top scorer for Germany with 3 goals, Musiala bagged 12 goals, crucial in the title retention before he was ruled out of an injury mid way into the season.

But his journey to become the main man, started from his early days, where glimpses of his performances had made everybody jaw drop of his talent.

Rightly so, he was nick named as “Bambi” by the German fans during the Euro 2021, when he was just 18 years old. Talking about the origin of the name, fellow Germany teammate, Serge Gnabry had revealed that it was Leroy Sane who had given that name to Musiala.

“Leroy gave him the nickname Bambi. He’s a sweet little boy, quite a pleasant guy. His footballing qualities are exceptional. As you saw against Hungary, he can help the team extremely. I am completely convinced of him. His time will come, it is just a case of when“, Gnabry during a press conference in Euro 2021.

There are also similarities in looks that supports the naming. Bambi is a fictional character from the 1942 coming of age drama film of the same name, which features a fawn as the protagonist.

While in a recent interview where Bayern Munich players call out their nicknames, Musiala said that since the departure of Leroy Sane, the originator of the nickname, “Bambi” is not in usage anymore.

He also had said that he had grown a bit more, old enough to be not called by that name.

But, not in the books of Bayern fans, who still see him as the cute little fawn deer. Some even drew physical similarities between the deer and musiala.

The face structure of the animated deer and that of Musiala with big eyes, were considered to be similar, declaring that the name is never getting rid off.

Previously in 2022, Musiala had vowed to grow out of the nickname in coming years as he wont be the same prodigy with potential but the man at the center stage.

In the Euros 2024, Musiala had already acknowledged of improving out of the name in physical attributes as well as footballing skills.

Jonathan Tah , Musiala’s teammate, is another player who is still calling out Jamal as “Bambi”. He agreed that Musiala has got older but still does not get out of the perception for him.

Musiala somehow cannot get rid of his cool nickname. Maybe bulking more and transforming his body as big as wrestlers, might be the only solution for him to truly outgrow it.

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