From Bayern Munich to Serie B in one year. A wasted talent, Michaël Cuisance

To say a 23-year-old player is a wasted talent? Isn’t that premature? But if you win your team’s Player of the Season award at just 17, are already defending the colours of Bayern Munich at 19 but kicking Serie B goals at 23, what else can you be? That’s been the trajectory of French youth international Michaël Cuisance’s career so far. What went wrong?

The rise and fall of Mönchengladbach

Cuisance came through the youth categories of the French national team alongside players like Dayot Upamecano, Matteo Guendouzi, Evan N’Dicka and Moussa Diaby.

Yet it was the left-footed midfielder from this talented group that appealed to Borussia Mönchengladbach’s management enough to buy him out of AS Nancy’s youth squad and, as a 17-year-old, include him directly in their first team alongside also new signings Denis Zakaria and Florian Neuhaus.

Although three years younger compared to the aforementioned pair of midfielders, Cuisance managed to make the biggest impression in their first season at the club. He didn’t make his way into the starting lineup immediately, having to wait until December for his first start.

Even then, coach Dieter Hecking moderated the youngster’s minutes and age respectively. Still, it was rare that Cuisance did not enter the game at least as a substitute.

Even that was enough for the then 18-year-old Frenchman to take home three Player of the Month awards during the season. After the season, his contributions added up to the ‘Player of the Season’ award. An outstanding accolade in his first year of senior professional football. Cuisanco’s star was on the rise.

However, the second year came a falling out with the coach, headlines about Cuisance’s troubled behavior and unprofessionalism, the loss of his spot on the team, and only 11 games instead of the previous 24. Likewise, the number of minutes Cuisance hit was cut to a quarter. In total, it didn’t even add up to three hundred.

Trophies from Munich

The player’s talent, however, was unquestionable. He continued to be a youth representative, taking part in the Junior World Cup with the France under-20 team. His reported escapades at Gladbach were indeed a cause for concern, but not significant enough to prevent Bayern Munich paying €8 million for Cuisance.

Accompanied by headlines asking if “Michaël Cuisance is the most promising French youth international” on the official Bundesliga website and words of praise from Bayern’s sporting director referring to Cuisance’s player of the season award as well as his “technical ability and the great potential he can develop with us”, Cuisance signed a five-year contract.

He arrived in Munich alongside players such as Lucas Hernández, Benjamin Pavard and the visiting duo of Philippe Coutinho and Ivan Perisic, replacing Renato Sanches in the line-up as a promising midfielder for the future.

But, comparatively to Sanches, Cuisance didn’t get any space in a midfield packed with stars like Thiago, Corentin Tolisso, Leon Goretzka, Javi Martinez or Joshua Kimmich.

Moreover, Bayern’s early season performance was not very good, which resulted not only in coach Kovac relying more on more experienced mainstays, but also eventually in his departure and Hansi Flick taking over the helm.

Cuisance became a treble winner during his first season in Bavaria, but although he played more than he had the previous season in Gladbach, he did not have a big hand in his team’s success. He was given more space at the quieter end of a coronavirus-laden season, where he could show himself to interested parties for a possible loan move.

A loan with a bitter end

Marseille came up with a mutually beneficial offer. So in the summer before the 2020/21 season, Cuisance moved back to his native France. In the team led by Portuguese manager André Villas-Boas, the talented midfielder complemented current Aston Villa mainstay Boubacar Kamara in midfield, for example.

Cuisance has been given plenty of opportunities in France. He was part of the starting line-up from the beginning and it already looked like he would successfully restart his stuttering career. However, it was in Marseille where the view of Cuisance definitely turned. And not for the better.

At the turn of the year, he began to drop out of the starting lineup, moving more into a substitute role. His minutes were also dwindling. In February, for the first time, he didn’t get on the pitch at all. A situation he was very familiar with before the end of April.

His loan spell was then unofficially terminated before the end of the season, as he still returned early to Munich with two rounds of Ligue 1 remaining.

The newspaper headlines were clear about the cause. Behavioural problems, disagreements with the coach, teammates… Actually the same as earlier at Mönchengladbach.

The loss in Bavaria

Even in the big club, surrounded by the biggest stars of the game, the negative headlines did not leave Cuisance. For example, according to the BILD newspaper, Michaël Cuisance was one of the very few professional footballers in Germany who did not get vaccinated against the virus during the pandemic.

Information that, especially with today’s optics, will cause many to shrug their shoulders, but at that moment, when most of us were spending all our time at home while footballers flew from country to country for European Cup matches, it was a big topic.

Cuisance, whose value had declined even during his time as a guest, where he finally made some regular appearances, found even less sympathy with the new coach in Munich. Julian Nagelsmann clearly did not count on Cuisance and, with the exception of the first game of the season, left him in the stands until the end of the autumn.

Cuisance made his only start for Bayern in December, in a comfortably won game against Stuttgart, after which he left the club. With all that said, he only played 13 games for Bayern and managed to damage his reputation so much during his time there that the next step was not just a step down.

Into the rescue fight in Italy

Cuisance had to accept a descent of at least two floors. In January 2022, Italy’s Venice, playing for Serie A salvation at the time, were the biggest suitors.

A failed medical at Leeds United in England didn’t help the still-young Frenchman. It reportedly scared the club so much that it backed out of the transfer altogether. The contact eventually resulted in the transfer of Marco Roca, but Cuisance did not benefit in any way.

And Bayern did not benefit from Cuisance in any way, letting the player go for half the amount they paid for him two and a half years earlier. At the same time, the headlines about France’s most promising youth international turned into headlines that he should have stayed at Gladbach.

It was a statement shared by the then sporting director of Borussia Mönchengladbach, now RB Leipzig, Max Eberl earlier during Cuisanco’s travails in Munich. But time seems to have proved him right.

Mistakes have been made, however, and Cuisance has struggled in Italy to keep his new team in the top flight. Unsuccessfully. During the autumn part of the current season he played with Venice in Serie B. In just one year, the Bayern Munich player has become a midfielder for the second division team.

Back to Serie A

In January, he won a loan move back to the top flight. Sampdoria showed interest in him. Hopelessly the last team in the top Italian competition. Cuisanco’s future in the top division is once again rather unlikely.

Moreover, his parent club may continue their decline and play in the third league next season. In all the negatives, it is only a small consolation that Cuisance is at least making regular appearances in Italy.

Sources: Bundesliga, BeINSport, BILD, BeSoccer, Transfermarkt