December 26, 2025 – 9:55 a.mReading time: 5 min.
After a year to forget, marked by serious injuries, Jamal Musiala wants to attack fully in the new year. But the signs have changed.
The fact that Alphonso Davies was able to celebrate his comeback for FC Bayern before the turn of the year after his cruciate ligament tear and 262 days of injury was “like a little Christmas present” for CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen. After Hiroki Itō had already been able to collect his first minutes of play after breaking his metatarsal, there was only one thing missing for complete Bavarian bliss just in time for Christmas Eve: the return of Jamal Musiala.
The FC Bayern playmaker was seriously injured on July 5th in the quarter-final exit at the Club World Cup in the USA against Paris Saint-Germain (0-2). After his complicated fibula fracture and several torn ligaments in his left ankle, the 22-year-old has already reached the final step of his rehabilitation. Musiala already experienced Davies’ comeback against Sporting Lisbon (3-1) live in the stadium, but he then strolled through the catacombs of the Munich Arena in a casual leisure look with a black baseball cap – and not in the Bayern jersey.
When he was asked when he would return, he replied with a grin: “Soon.” Still this year? “I don’t believe that,” said Musiala. A full 164 days after his horror injury, Musiala was back on the pitch with his colleagues for the first time in the week before Christmas. The 22-year-old took part in team training during the warm-up and some passing exercises, but that was all there was to it. But that didn’t dampen the joy. “Jamal is back!” his teammates shouted across the training pitch before letting Musiala run through the obligatory line.
Musiala should really be “back” in the new year, a good six months after his serious injury. In January, Bayern coach Vincent Kompany recently emphasized that the national player “could probably play his first minutes again from the start. That would be an ideal plan for us.” If it works, Kompany believes: “Then 2026 can be his year for him.”
Kompany thus made his expectations for the return of his key player unmistakably clear. With Musiala, Kompany and Bayern want to complete their triple mission, which they are on after a successful first half of the season in the championship, the DFB Cup and the Champions League, in the next six months.
And then the World Cup in North America awaits Musiala, where the 22-year-old could be crowned world champion with the German national team. In any case, the plan is clear: the horror year of 2025, in which he had to take a 71-day break after tearing a muscle immediately before the Club World Cup, is to be followed by a golden year for Musiala in 2026.
