For a young footballer who has ever been rejected, overlooked or told they weren't good enough, Michael Olise's story is one worth knowing.
Today, Olise plays for Bayern Munich and France and has established himself among football's leading attacking players. He was named the Bundesliga's Player of the Season for 2025/26, after a remarkable rise through Reading, Crystal Palace and Bayern Munich.
But his pathway to the top looked very different when he was a teenager.
There were academy setbacks.
There were doubts.
And there was a period when one of today's biggest football stars didn't even have a club.
Michael Olise's youth career wasn't a straight line
Olise was born in London in December 2001 and spent his youth career within several of England's biggest football academies.
Bayern Munich's official player profile records his youth pathway as Arsenal in 2009, Chelsea from 2009 to 2016, Manchester City from 2016 to 2017 and Reading from 2017.
But simply looking at that list doesn't tell the whole story.
Olise left Chelsea's academy at around 14 after spending much of his childhood there.
He subsequently trained with Manchester City, travelling to Manchester for several weeks, before another setback.
Then came something that can be particularly difficult for any young footballer:
He spent around six months without a club.
Imagine experiencing that at 15 or 16.
Other players are signing contracts, joining academies and progressing through age groups while you're wondering where - or even whether - your next opportunity will come.
For a young player, it would have been very easy to interpret those setbacks as a verdict on how good they were going to become.
Olise's subsequent career demonstrates why they weren't.
Reading eventually gave Michael Olise his opportunity
Reading became the club where Olise's pathway began to change.
He joined their academy and progressed rapidly enough that, in March 2019, he made his senior Reading debut while still only 17 years old.
Reading described him at the time as a first-year scholar. After making his debut against Leeds United, Olise said he hoped to keep working hard and earn more opportunities.
That moment is even more remarkable when you consider what had happened only a short time earlier.
A teenager who had experienced setbacks at two enormous football academies and spent months without a club was now playing professional football at 17.
And he didn't stop there.
From Reading to Crystal Palace
Olise continued developing at Reading and eventually became one of the Championship's outstanding young players.
He made close to 70 Championship appearances and was named the EFL Young Player of the Season before moving to Crystal Palace in 2021.
He was only 19.
Suddenly, the teenager who had once been without a club was playing Premier League football.
But the climb wasn't finished.
Bayern Munich came calling at 22
After three seasons at Crystal Palace, Olise joined Bayern Munich in July 2024.
He was 22 years old. Bayern's official profile confirms his progression from Reading to Crystal Palace and then to the German giants.
His impact was immediate.
Olise was voted Bayern's Player of the Season in his first campaign with the club.
Then he got even better.
In 2025/26, Olise recorded 25 goals and 28 assists in 57 competitive appearances for Bayern and was named both Bayern's Player of the Season and the Bundesliga's Player of the Season.
Bayern coach Vincent Kompany has also spoken publicly about Olise's work ethic, describing him as a very hard worker and highlighting the detailed way he approaches improving his game.
That's an important part of this story.
Talent mattered.
But so did what happened after the setbacks.
Michael Olise's journey in ages
When you put the timeline together, the story becomes even more powerful:
Around 14: His time at Chelsea comes to an end.
Around 16: His Manchester City opportunity doesn't work out.
Around 16: He spends approximately six months without a club.
17: Makes his professional debut for Reading.
19: Joins Crystal Palace and moves into Premier League football.
22: Signs for Bayern Munich.
24: Named the 2025/26 Bundesliga Player of the Season.
That is a huge amount of change in less than a decade.
What young footballers can learn from Michael Olise
Youth football can feel incredibly definitive when you're living through it.
You don't make the academy.
Someone else gets selected.
You're released.
You're told you're too small.
You're on the bench.
Your teammate gets the opportunity you desperately wanted.
At 13, 14, 15 or 16, those moments can feel enormous.
But youth development isn't a perfectly predictable process.
Players mature physically at different rates. They develop technically and psychologically at different times. Different coaches value different qualities. And one club's decision about a teenager isn't a permanent verdict on that player's potential.
Olise's story is an unusually powerful example.
Chelsea didn't determine where he would finish.
Manchester City didn't determine where he would finish.
Six months without a club didn't determine where he would finish.
He kept developing.
And when another opportunity arrived, he was ready to take it.
A message for parents of young footballers too
There's a lesson here for parents as well.
When your child is rejected, our instinct can be to immediately find another trial, another academy or another person who will validate their ability.
Sometimes what a young athlete needs most is support to keep perspective.
One selection decision does not define them.
Neither does one coach's opinion.
Help them look at what they can control:
How hard they train.
How they respond to feedback.
How they look after their body.
How consistently they practise.
How they behave when things aren't going their way.
And whether they're prepared to keep going.
Nobody can guarantee where that will ultimately take them.
But those are qualities that remain valuable regardless of which badge is on their shirt.
Rejection can be a detour, not a dead end
Michael Olise's career isn't proof that every player who gets rejected will eventually play for Bayern Munich.
That's not the lesson.
The lesson is that a setback at 14, 15 or 16 cannot tell you what a young athlete will eventually become.
Sometimes development takes longer.
Sometimes the pathway changes.
Sometimes another coach sees something the previous one didn't.
And sometimes the opportunity arrives later than you hoped.
What matters is being ready when it does.
Hard work. Consistency. Never give up.
That's what DYVAL stands for.