The former coach of Bayern Munich star Michael Olise has shared an interesting story that vividly illustrates the calm nature of the French attacker.
He revealed how, as a teenager, he would regularly find him sleeping in his car in a parking lot before training. It’s the story of his remarkable journey—from a talent rejected by Chelsea and Manchester City to becoming one of the key players for the Bavarian giants.
Early mornings and sleeping in the car
“Every morning when I arrived at training, Michael was sitting in his car, fast asleep,” said Mark Bowen, who managed Olise at the beginning of his professional career at Reading, speaking on ZDF’s program Bolzplatz.
At that time, Olise was a teenager who had just broken into the first team of the English second-division club Reading and was still living with his family in London. Every morning he had to battle through heavy city traffic to get to training on time.
“He said he didn’t want to get stuck in traffic and spend too much time in the car. He might have left as early as 5:30 in the morning to arrive on time. He would come to training and then sleep behind the wheel,” Bowen recalls, now the sporting director of English fifth-tier club Forest Green Rovers.
“When training started at 9, the senior players would ask me: ‘Where is Michael? Why is he late?’ I would tell them: ‘He might be late for training, but while you were still in bed, he was already in the parking lot.’ He was just a kid and didn’t sleep much. We had to knock on his window to wake him up for training,” he continued.
From rejected talent to stardom
Olise spent seven years in Chelsea’s youth system after a short spell at Arsenal. The Blues released him at the age of 14 despite his obvious talent, after which he moved to Manchester City but stayed there for only a year.
At 15, he finally settled at Reading, where he joined the first team less than two years later. “Why did he end up at Reading after all those big clubs? The only thing I can assume is that those clubs may have seen his confidence as something negative. They thought maybe he should have been a bit more modest,” Bowen still wonders today.
Rise through Palace to Bayern
Under Bowen’s guidance, Olise became a regular at Reading, and in 2021 he moved to Crystal Palace, where he proved himself in the Premier League. Bayern paid a €53 million release clause for the Frenchman in 2024, an investment that paid off in less than two years.
In Munich, Olise has developed into one of the brightest talents in world football and recently impressed against Paris Saint-Germain. The 24-year-old has scored 20 goals and provided 29 assists in 47 appearances this season.
According to Transfermarkt, Olise is valued at €140 million. In total, he has recorded 40 goals and 52 assists in 102 matches for Bayern.
