Here's an interesting one, as we in the business like to say: An Arsenal spokesperson informs me that their '02 Yunus Musah was born in New York. (I'm told he also has an Italian passport.) He seems to have appeared for both their U18s and U16s last season. In the summer of 2018 he was linked with a move to Juventus, which of course didn't happen. As it turns out, just a few days ago a Spanish article linked him with Valencia. https://eldesmarque.com/valencia/va...alencia-cf-de-pesca-en-la-cantera-del-arsenal Here are some top bins. I'm too old to know what that means. Top bins from Yunus Musah 🚀#AFCU18 pic.twitter.com/kBvF3DnWkR— Arsenal Academy (@ArsenalAcademy) December 1, 2018 Musah confirms his birthplace in this video, which I found not long after hearing back from Arsenal. (He also compares himself to Pogba.) I don't know much about his parents and the interview doesn't really clarify things, but clearly he has some claim to English citizenship and maybe more. Most of his early youth was spent in Italy. Amusingly, he says in the interview above that he worried when he left Italy that he wouldn't be able to play soccer any more. It turned out, luckily for him, they have soccer in England, too. He has played for England -- including against us, in this October match: England: 1 Louie Moulden (Manchester City), 2 Valentino Livramento (Chelsea), 4 Miguel Azeez (Arsenal), 5 Taylor Harwood-Bellis (Manchester City) (c), 6 Teden Mengi (Manchester United), 7 Alexander Mighten (Nottingham Forest), 8 Yunus Musah (Arsenal), 9 Sam Greenwood (Arsenal), 10 Fabio Carvalho (Fulham), 11 Morgan Rogers (West Bromwich Albion), 19 Dennis Cirkin (Tottenham Hotspur) http://www.thefa.com/news/2018/oct/12/england-u17s-usa-report-121018 However, while I could absolutely have missed something, I don't believe he is cap-tied. England's U17s got a bye into the penultimate round of UEFA U17 qualifying and I couldn't easily find him on the squad for that round or the continental finals. England didn't qualify for this year's FIFA U17s. Photos of him in both uniforms on his Insta: https://www.instagram.com/yunus.musah8 Of course some of this may make you think of Arsenal's American-born EYNT player Flo Balogun. Who knows, maybe someday they'll rep the USA together. I'd say to dare is to do here, but I know that's not an Arsenal thing... https://www.bigsoccer.com/threads/folarin-balogun-at-arsenal.2082404/ Only keep reading past this point if you happen to care about the ins and outs of researching players like this and why it can be both frustrating and enjoyable. Musuh's name comes up when you search T'Markt for players born in the U.S. -- but his profile page lists him as English/Ghanaian, and doesn't mention a birthplace. That's enough to be interesting, but not much to go on. I'd seen it months ago but guessed it might be a Balogun-related error. https://www.transfermarkt.de/yunus-musah/profil/spieler/503991 Of course, if for some reason I'd seen that and then immediately thought to watch the interview above, "#TalkingTekkers with Stevo The Madman," this would've been resolved easily. But I didn't... Instead, I poked around the web and found things pretty messy. Here's an article that says he was born in America, lived in Italy, and is Ghana-eligible. But it's hard to know the sourcing for stories like this one, where there's no direct comment from the player or a representative, and I'm personally unfamiliar with the site. https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/players/azeez-musah-greenwood-amazing-arsenal-16213743 Lots of other stories and sites I found didn't mention a birthplace or any American connection. Here's an example from an Arsenal fansite. https://arsenalyouth.wordpress.com/...the-next-standout-schoolboy-for-arsenal-u18s/ At least one other story I found, which I have lost track of now, said he was born elsewhere. All told, not particularly conclusive. I'd thought about posting about him on the Detective Work thread, but finally I just decided to email the club. I don't know anybody there, you'll be shocked to know, and I was pleasantly surprised when someone responded in fairly short order to emails I sent to generic inboxes. It never hurts to try! (I've sent questions to local Scandinavian clubs and never heard back, so my expectations when reaching out to organizations like these are pretty low.) Amusingly, perhaps, their rep at first had bad news: Musuh, as far as they knew, was born in Italy. Then, a short while later, they followed up saying "We have since found out..." Thought I would share this in hopes that inspires others who like digging around, asking questions, and finding and sharing things. Good luck and have fun.
That is great stuff, Dave! Love it (and love and appreciate your important contributions to BigSoccer!)
Some highlights, via Twitter: 🔝 Yunus é o famoso box-to-box, motorzinho do time que preenche bem os espaços no meio-campo. 🚀 Outra característica importante é o seu poder de infiltração. No U16 Musah foi o artilheiro da equipe na Copa da PL.pic.twitter.com/DBJgqs1KWz— Gunners Brazil (@gunners_brazil) May 3, 2019 And: 1141306723677933569 is not a valid tweet id I couldn't immediately determine whether these would be considered top, middle, or bottom bins.
This was badly written (by me) and I wanted to clarify what I meant here so it didn't potentially seem like I was raising any questions about his Englishness. I meant "some kind of" claim, meaning simply that given that he was born in the States and has an Italian passport, I personally did not know the precise nature of his connection to the country for which he plays. And when I said "maybe more," I meant only to note that he is also sometimes referred to as Ghanaian.
FWIW: Most suited to operating as a deep-lying midfielder, Musah can also play as a number ten, on either flank, or even up front. Like most Hale End graduates, the 16-year-old is excellent technically, while he is also capable of pushing forwards regularly to excellent effect. Losing Musah would undoubtedly be a blow for Arsenal given the quality that he possesses, but he couldn’t be begrudged the opportunity to test himself elsewhere. https://arseblog.news/2019/06/yunus-musah-departure-would-be-big-disappointment-for-arsenal-academy/
The move may still be a possibility, as per this report (which was cited in other reports, meaning -- more repots!) which recently reported, reportedly: https://www.football.london/arsenal-fc/transfer-news/arsenal-lose-key-transfer-battle-16623543
I haven't easily found confirmation of this from the club site, but it appears that Musah did in fact move to Valencia's academy. El nuevo fichaje Yunus Musah ya se luce con el Mestalla https://eldesmarque.com/valencia/valencia-cf/202485-yunus-musah-ya-se-luce-con-el-mestalla-2-1 Scores a nice solo goal at about 20 seconds in here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=22&v=LepDu7sS1zU
He confirmed the move on Instagram: I am over the moon to have officially signed for @valenciacf https://www.instagram.com/p/B19eQetFbs2/
Starts: 🏆 Grupo H - @UEFAYouthLeague ONCE INICIAL JUVENIL A @Academia_VCF: Joaquín Blázquez, Pascu, Guillamón ©, Guillem Molina, David Ruiz, Koba Lein, Yunus Musah, Hugo González, Pedro Alemañ, Noha NDombasi y Pablo Gozálbez 🎤 #VCFMediaRadio#VCFAcademy 🦇#UYL— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) September 17, 2019 @TheFalseNine -- Let's update title to: Yunus Musah at Valencia CF Thanks.
🇪🇸 Good to see Yunus Musah make his league debut for Valencia B at the weekend 👏🏼 The former Arsenal man already playing third-tier football at the age of 16 🔥He played 74 minutes in a 0-0 draw with La Nucía.#englishabroad #afc #VCFMestalla pic.twitter.com/ex90AzBNE9— English Players Abroad (@EnglishAbroad1) September 16, 2019
English fans are hyping their kids even better than ours. Third tear sounds like English League 1 though it's much closer to English youth league.
Starts: Jälleen voitto upealla joukkuepelillä, mutta kuka illan tähtijoukkueesta tuikkikaan kirkkaimmin? Oliko se kenties puolustaja Henri Aalto, upeisiin torjuntoihin venynyt Tim Murray vai 0-1 maalin viimeistellyt Demba Savage? Te päätätte! #meollaanhonka #esporthonka #keltamustat pic.twitter.com/8VwjGTpQar— FC Honka Miehet (@FCHonkaMiehet) September 28, 2019 0-1 | M. 70ÚLTIMO CAMBIO EN EL #VCFMestalla: ➡ Carlos Pérez⬅ Yunus Musah🎤 #VCFMediaRadio#VCFAcademy 🦇 pic.twitter.com/RcCv3oMFgt— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) September 28, 2019
Starts: 🏆 Grupo H - @UEFAYouthLeague ONCE INICIAL JUVENIL A @Academia_VCF: Joaquín Blázquez, Joseda Menargues, Hugo Guillamón ©, Guillem Molina, David Ruiz, Koba Lein, Yunus Musah, Pascu, Noha NDombasi, Jordi Escobar y Pablo Gozálbez 🎤#VCFMediaRadio#VCFAcademy 🦇#UYL— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) October 2, 2019
Starts: ✔️ ONCE INICIAL VCF MESTALLA: Cristian Rivero, Marc Ferris (c), David Castro, Javi Jiménez, Adrián Guerrero, Adri Gómez, Vicente Esquerdo, Sergio Moreno, Carlos González, Yunus Musah y Jordi S. R.✔️Vamos filial, a por el triunfo en Badalona 👏#VCFAcademy 🦇— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) October 6, 2019
Starts in UEFA Youth League: 🏆@UEFAYouthLeagueONCE INICIAL JUVENIL A @Academia_VCF: Joaquín Blázquez, Pascu, Hugo Guillamón ©, Guillem Molina, David Ruiz, Koba Lein, Yunus Musah, Hugo González, Noha NDombasi, Pedro Alemañ y Pablo Gozálbez Sois los mejores 🦇🦇🦇🎤 #VCFMediaRadio#VCFAcademy #UYL— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) October 23, 2019
🏆 @UEFAYouthLeague 1-0 | M. 72TRIPLE CAMBIO EN EL Juvenil A de la @Academia_VCF ➡ Xavi Estacio⬅ Pascu➡ Jesús Vázquez⬅ David Ruiz➡ Contell⬅ Musah Yunus#VCFAcademy 🦇#UYL— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) October 23, 2019
Starts in UEFA Youth League: 🏆 Grupo H - @UEFAYouthLeague ONCE INICIAL JUVENIL A @Academia_VCF: Joaquín Blázquez, Xavi Estacio, Guillem Molina ©, Jairo Quinteros, David Ruiz, Koba Lein, Yunus Musah, Gastón Alonso, Nacho Muñoz, Jordi Escobar y José Contell🎤 #VCFMediaRadio#VCFAcademy 🦇#UYL— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) December 10, 2019 🏆 @UEFAYouthLeague 1-1 | M. 70DOBLE CAMBIO EN EL Juvenil A de la @Academia_VCF ➡ Fran Pérez⬅ Yunus Musah➡ Noha Ndombasi⬅ Nacho Muñoz🎤 #VCFMediaRadio #VCFAcademy 🦇#UYL pic.twitter.com/hhGUE9L3XR— Academia VCF #ADNVCF 🦇 (@Academia_VCF) December 10, 2019
He's been starting regularly for the U19s in the UEFA Youth League and coming off the bench with some consistency for Valencia Mestalla (read: Valencia B) in the third tier.
Played the full 90 Great to see Yunus Musah getting his chance in the Valencia first team a year after leaving Arsenal - he had ambition and self-belief, saw a path in Spain and is clearly on it. https://t.co/aT70jQ5HLq— James Benge (@jamesbenge) August 22, 2020
On the bench for a friendly: #ValenciaVillarreal | Here is the official team sheet from the @PinatarArena. 👇 pic.twitter.com/v6wTg820hh— Villarreal CF English (@VillarrealCFen) August 28, 2020 Came in somewhere around the 63rd minute: 1-1 | Some changes at VCF were made right before the goal ⤵️➡️Yunus, Kang In & Thierry⬅️Racic, Manu Vallejo & Jason#VCFVillarreal— Valencia CF (@valenciacf_en) August 28, 2020 Note: It appears his full name is "Yunus Dimoara Musah" and the club lists him as "Yunus Dimoara."
Starts: ⚽️ Our XI for #LevanteVCF 💪 pic.twitter.com/G7bkx4SHpe— Valencia CF (@valenciacf_en) August 29, 2020
0-0 | 71' 🔁 Changes at VCF➡️Racic, Manu Vallejo, Jason & Hugo González⬅️Yunus, Kang In, Álex Blanco & Pedro Alemañ#LevanteVCF ⚽️— Valencia CF (@valenciacf_en) August 29, 2020