This always seemed like a strange loan. On deadline day, Premier League side Fulham signed Bayern Munich youngster Jonah Kusi-Asare on loan with an option to buy, reportedly beating out teams from the
Netherlands and Germany to land the Sweden U-21 international. Given the 18-year-old had played just six professional minutes prior to the move, there were serious questions about Kusi-Asare’s readiness to play in the Premier League, arguably the most difficult league in the world.
Those concerns seem to have been well founded. Nearing the end of November, Kusi-Asare has played just two games for Fulham, one in the Carabao Cup (in which he missed a penalty) and a 1 minute cameo in the Premier League. This despite Fulham’s other strikers, Rodrigo Muniz and Raúl Jimenez, missing multiple games through injury already this season. In short, he has still played more minutes in the league for Bayern this season (against Rasenballsport Leipzig) than for Fulham. It is grim.
And Fulham manager Marco Silva has not been shy to explain why he has featured so little. Speaking ahead of Fulham’s 1-0 win over Sunderland FC, the Portuguese had this to say:
“When we signed him, clearly we saw certain things in him. He has some skills that are important in a striker. I know that he’s from a massive football club [Bayern], but he didn’t play enough senior football before he joined our football club. When he first arrived, it was a moment for us to start to know him, to see what stage that he’s at right now,” said Silva (as captured by @iMiaSanMia). “When you take decisions, you don’t take them because he’s a player A, B, C, or D, it’s because of the stage they compare to the others. I think you can take the conclusions of what I’m saying to you right now. If he’s not playing in this moment of the competition, it means that he’s not in a stage that he’s ready to go.“
Those are a lot of words to simply say that Kusi-Asare is not ready. Perhaps Silva was trying to phrase it in a more gentle manner. But he is not wrong. So…now what? It is too early to say, but a January return cannot be ruled out at this point in time.
If you are looking for more Bayern Munich and German national team coverage, check out the latest episodes of Bavarian Podcast Works, which you can get on Acast, Spotify, Apple, or any leading podcast distributor…
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