Musah: 'Without God, I wouldn't be in this position - millions of people work as hard as me' (2024)

Yunus Musah is back in New York, the city where he was born, and reflecting on the wanderlust that has taken him to play at English, Spanish and Italian clubs all by the age of 21.

“I guess I get some of it from my dad,” says the AC Milan midfielder, of his father, Ibrahim, who left Ghana at a young age in pursuit of greater security in the north of Italy. “He left aged 16. He tells me stories about it. It is very inspiring. We now have a great life in Europe. So credit to him, he went through all of that to get us where we are with a lot less money (than we have now).”

What do those stories involve?

“The stories of migrants. He had to do a lot of things — so, for example, when he was in Italy, he was sleeping in cars and he slept outside. He used to take a bike two hours away from work — there and back, so that’s four hours. Then, (as he became more successful), he upgraded to a motorcycle and then eventually to a car. This was before I was born.

“But it just makes me feel really grateful. Sometimes it just grounds me a lot. Why are you complaining about small things when your dad went through this? It’s very eye-opening. I’m very thankful.”

As Musah reclines into the chair in the garden of a New York hotel, where AC Milan stayed during their pre-season tour of the United States, there is plenty to think about. At Milan, he has a new coach, Paulo Fonseca, who has put his players through hardcore double training sessions in the searing east coast heat. Milan begin their Serie A campaign today (Saturday) at home against Torino, hoping to improve on last season’s second-placed finish and a 19-point deficit to their city rivals Inter Milan, while also hoping for progress in the Champions League.

Musah, who joined Milan last summer in a deal worth $22.1million (£17.1m) had a modest first season at the club, starting 13 Serie A games. He has yet to score his first goal for the club. Milan’s team includes his international team-mate Christian Pulisic while iconic former striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic is an advisor to the club’s owner, RedBird, and attends training twice per week.

“(Zlatan) has a presence,” Musah says. “It’s nice. He comes to speak to us. He’s a great mentor. Everyone knows how it is — he is demanding and pushes you. He says, ‘We’re at Milan, we need to win. It’s not good enough to win some games and not others. Everyone wants to come to this club, so we’re not guaranteed our positions here’. Things like this; it keeps you on your toes.”

This season, the USMNT midfielder says he would “love to have a lot of protagonism”. He adds: “I’d love to play so many games, be really involved, score goals — all of the good stuff. Every season, you start with ambitions and things that you want to improve on. I also want titles.”

He says Fonseca has already improved him. “It’s a lot of information,” Musah says, a little weary after a heavy morning session working on legs in the gym and then on the field. “I am learning a lot, he is helping me with my body shape, receiving the ball, connections with the centre-backs, just helping me be able to play with the ball as a midfielder; getting it, moving it on.”

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There had been some speculation that Musah may be moving on. “I see myself here this season, the manager has not kicked me out,” he says, laughing. “So I’m going to stay here and I want to work so hard to play many games and be really impactful.”

For Musah, it has been a long circuitous journey to the top of European football. His mother gave birth to him while visiting family in New York, which qualifies him to play for the U.S.

His parents are from Ghana. They lived in Castelfranco Veneto, a small town in north Italy, until the age of nine, before moving to London. When choosing an international team, he had the U.S., England, Ghana and Italy as options. The U.S. won that battle, largely thanks to a charm offensive led by the former coach Gregg Berhalter and his assistant Nico Estevez, who drew Musah back to the country of his birth.

Musah, now 21, speaks most wistfully about his earliest memories of playing football in Italy.

“My mum had an oriental shop,” he recalls. “We lived in a block of flats. Our house is up there.”

He points upwards. “And then the shop was downstairs. There was a little park on the side, and we used to play in the park all summer. And then when we got tired, we’d go to the shop and get a drink because she had a Coca-Cola fridge, and then go back outside.”

He spoke Italian outside the house but within the home, the family spoke Hausa, a Chadic language spoken among his Ghanaian community.

The layout of the shop remains vivid. “African foods — yam, plantain chips. This was when there were phone booths in shops, so she had those too. As a child, I never saw anything financially. And I felt like we were rich. We weren’t — but my parents made it seem like we were. We got everything we needed, food-wise. I wasn’t fussed about clothes or anything, but when I look back, we just had what we needed. And my parents never, ever made us feel like we didn’t have money. But actually, they were always struggling and always working really hard. There were five of us to look after. They’re amazing people.”

Did his parents want him to be a footballer?

“No,” he says. “My parents just wanted me to have a great education, something they didn’t get. So they wanted me to have an education that obviously would help to get a good job. I was also playing football because I just loved it. And then eventually when things got more serious, they saw that it had a possibility. Then they pushed me as well.”

His family are devout Muslims and Musah attributes his success to his faith. “It is everything,” he says. “A massive role. I strongly believe that without God, I wouldn’t be in this position, because there are millions of people that work hard and it’s just not meant for them to be in certain positions, even though they work probably harder than me. They have their own pathway. This is my pathway and I’m grateful for it. And I have to really appreciate that this is chosen for me.”

Things became more serious after the family moved to east London when Musa was nine. He was spotted by Arsenal, joining the club’s academy, and linking up with the now-England international Bukayo Saka.

“The other players were ahead of me,” he says. “They’d been playing there already, and technically they were more gifted than me. And I just had to work hard. And eventually, I became one of the best. Bukayo is doing the same things now that he was doing at academy level — and he’s doing them even better now, even though it’s harder to do it at senior level.

“The difference is he didn’t play on the right in his youth. He played left-back and left-wing. It’s impressive. He’s improved as well, it’s crazy. Sometimes you see players do better in the youth teams because it is easier. But then he’s actually doing better in men’s football. He stands out even more now.”

Musah soon caught up with his peers. He played in the England youth age groups. A team sheet from February 2017 recently went viral on social media, when Musah captained an England Under-15s team against Belgium. The line-up included now-Chelsea players Noni Madueke and Cole Palmer, while Real Madrid’s Jude Bellingham and Bayern Munich’s Jamal Musiala (who went on to represent Germany) started on the bench.

“I’m not surprised at the level they’re playing at,” Musah says. “What surprised me was those three players — Cole, Jude and Jamal — all of their growth spurts. They were small players before, and now they’ve all shot up and they’re taller than me. But playing-wise, I’m not surprised at all.”

At the age of 16, Musah made a brave and unexpected call: he left Arsenal, even though the club did not want him to exit. Where does the courage to do that come from?

“I just wanted to pursue my passion and my goals. I also had self-belief as well. I believe in God — those things together make me feel like I can make big decisions.”

He joined the Spanish club Valencia. Why?

“I was 16. I felt like I could start getting into first-team training at least. At Arsenal, I don’t think I would have got the chance. So I was willing to go wherever I was going to get the chance at a good level. I was like, ‘Yeah, OK, I’m going to make this decision’. And whether it starts well or not, I’m going to stick by it until it works out for me. And, thankfully, it ended up working out.”

Did he have a lot of clubs to choose from? “I had a lot of options. I could have gone to every English club, really. Valencia had the best pathway for me. Valencia was also pushing a lot of young players. They had the most convincing project. And I’m so grateful I went there. It was amazing.”

Valencia were good to their word. After a year in the club’s B team, Musah made 108 appearances for Valencia’s first team over three seasons, scoring five goals, while he also made Berhalter’s squad for the World Cup in Qatar in 2022, where he started all four games. His role in this summer’s Copa America was more modest, starting only the final group game against Uruguay following the red card to Tim Weah in the USMNT’s defeat against Panama.

“We learned a lot of things, obviously, both personally and collectively as well,” Musah reflects.

Such as?

“Managing games. I didn’t have a big role in this Copa America, but when I did, I don’t think I impacted (things) as much as I should have. You don’t get these chances so often, so you have to impact it when you get them. I have got to learn that.

“From a team perspective, just make sure you take care of business in games like the Bolivia one and Panama one, against rivals in games that you should win. You need to beat them. It’s as simple as that.”

The Copa did have one outcome, as Berhalter was fired.

“It was tough seeing Gregg leave,” Musah says. “He was the manager that brought me in. Great manager, great guy. So it was very sad to see. Hopefully, the next manager can be as good as Greg and help us achieve big things.”

(Top photo: John Todd/ISI Photos/USSF/Getty Images for USSF)

Adam Crafton covers football for The Athletic. He previously wrote for the Daily Mail. In 2018, he was named the Young Sports Writer of the Year by the Sports' Journalist Association. His debut book,"From Guernica to Guardiola", charting the influence of Spaniards in English football, was published by Simon & Schuster in 2018. He is based in London.