“I was surprised, really surprised. An exceptional footballer, an exceptional person. It is a gift for any football club.
The rhetorical question for the president of Crystal Palace, Steve Parish, was: Why was Ebelechi Eze was precious of the Selhurst park?
The parish was satisfied but perplexed. He has never moved from reality that, despite their own ambitions, the palace is a springboard to elite clubs. The sale of Michael Olise in Bayern Munich was an example.
At the rear of a solid finish last season and a European championship with England, many expected Eze to follow suit.
Was it the liberation clause of 68 million pounds sterling? Insignificant injuries? The fact that he was 27 years old in June? Or all that precedes?
These questions still apply today. Add that Eze fought with its shape and you understand why there is still an uncertainty about the move in an elite club, its talent deserves.
Crystal Palace president Steve Parish praised Ebelechi Eze as a “gift to any football club”
The parish was delighted but perplexed that Eze was not precious of Selhurst Park
Wednesday, the superb goal stolen by Eze against Arsenal was a reminder of his talents
The opponents in the semi-finals of the FA Cup on Saturday in Wembley, Aston Villa, appear on his long list of admirers. Manchester United recently called. Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and the Arsenal Childhood Club have also flirted with the signing of Eze but, so far, he stopped getting involved with him.
“There is no doubt about his abilities,” said a Premier League director at Mail Sport, “but was he coherent this season to justify this climb? And his injury file, for this price, we would need someone more robust.
Robust? When you know the way from Eze to our days, this is not a characteristic that you would question, but football assessments can often be delivered in frank terms.
“EBBS has had a fairly strange season,” said Palais director Oliver Glasner. “He was so unlucky in many situations. He had refused goals, deflected the bullets, hitting the post, everything, but he still continues.
“He fought with a few injuries, also strange injuries with his foot. But he always has confidence. We need this quality, each team needs this quality.
On Wednesday, the nonchalant flight of Eze against Arsenal and its role in the victory in the quarter -final of the Palace Cup in Fulham were timely reminders of its capacities.
A catchy performance in Craven Cottage was punctuated by an astonishing objective, and he showed the kind of observers of walt of fleets came to associate with a man who forged his skills in the claustrophobic spaces of crowded football cages in south-eastern London.
Nicknamed “Concrete Catalonia” for its propensity to find the talents of Premier League, it is a hard playing field, an escape for disadvantaged where you learn to find solutions quickly and to refine resilience.
Eze played a main role in the victory of Crystal Palace against Fulham in the quarter -finals of the FA Cup
Palace will need Eze to be on the song against when they will face Aston Villa in the semi-finals
A lack of robustness was presented as a reason why Eze has not moved to a larger club
Eze emerged from what he admits is “the not so beautiful part” of Greenwich, the Flamsteed estate, named after the first royal astronomer, John Flamsteed. There he played all day and night, often not eating, during the first steps of his football studies. A place, he says, which will be “forever special” and which he helps today with his foundation.
Born from the Nigerian parents of the Valentine and Nwugo church, Eze, to adjust a sentence, has his world on his feet.
The blue boots of the shadow of the tailor -made moon, which he designed with a new balance, are decorated with a constellation in the blink of an eye to the royal observatory which overlooks his old trampling plot.
Each star bears the name of those who are “dear to his heart”. “Whenever I take on the field, it’s like playing with me,” he said. “When I look down, I remember where I come from, which is real, which is true. Stay anchored.
Eze does not ask for the validation of others, but Glasner has stressed in recent weeks how important it was to be selected by Thomas Tuchel and to score his first goal in England against Latvia last month.
It was the affirmation of the faith that those who are close to him – his parents, two brothers and sister – had instilled when he was rejected by Arsenal at 13 years old. The same goes for Fulham, Reading and Millwall. Swansea City, Sunderland and Bristol City also refused it, but mental courage and an unwavering belief “that God had given him a gift that he was forced to take until the end,” fueled his persistence. His break came with a trial to QPR.
“Me and Andy Impey take a session and we just watched and thought:” Wow, who is it? ” “Said the QPR coach Paul Hall, who calls Eze one of the greatest influences in his career. “Your immediate thought is:” What’s wrong with him? ” ». We could not understand how someone so good had been tried. You think it’s too good to be true.
Hall’s technical director, Impey and QPR, Chris Ramsey, had recognized a supreme street footballer who simply needed a professional coach.
Aston Villa and Man United are among the admirers of Eze, while Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and the Arsenal Childhood Club all flirted with the signing of the midfielder
Crystal Palace Oliver Glasner Boss talked about the importance of Eze’s selection for England
Eze played for Thomas Tuchel’s team against Latvia and scored his first goal in England
“It was the easy things he didn’t have, the position game on which he needed to be a coach,” said Hall. “He needed coaches who understood street football and I played in the cages.”
At QPR, Eze felt. They spoke his language. The training alongside the Maverick Ravel Morrison helped accelerate its creative flow.
However, an occasional shock was necessary. According to his own words, Eze had a “stinking” when his mentor Ramsey reminded him at halftime: “You almost worked at Tesco if we did not sign you”.
However, there were more than a few reward points for QPR, when the star researcher of Crystal Palace, Dougie Freedman, entered West Ham in 2020 to sign Eze for 19.5 million pounds sterling.
The key to Freedman’s field was the former manager of England, Roy Hodgson, then in charge of Palace, who had promised to make Eze a better player.
The palace analysis showed that Eze had had an impact on QPR games for 25 minutes, but Hodgson was able to improve this up to an hour.
Eze has credited Hodgson to have opened his eyes much more. “Not only on football, but how to wear me as a person.” The two have formed an improbable link.
Not that there is much to manage. Eze, Tee-Total and well high, would attend the church on Sunday with his teammate Nathan Ferguson.
The former boss of Crystal Palace Roy Hodgson has helped improve the impact of Eze on the Games
Eze has formed an improbable link with Hodgson and says that he has opened his eyes on more than football
Eze helped push palace to the edge of history and was tilted to get much more
Hodgson encouraged the competitive nature of Eze, even in failures and table tennis. It started to take effect. A word spreads to Eze’s potential to win an international call.
A little help from the family did not feel bad either, because her cousin as an actress Ego Nwodim began to wear a palace Away shirt in the cult television show Saturday Night Live.
“Players of its type will always be monitored,” says Hodgson. “But it is he who must maintain this level. He can have his career as far as he wants while he is ready to work for it. He has already shown capacity, skills and mentality.
But Eze’s journey was about to meet another stumbling block. Just as Gareth Southgate was to give him his first cap in England, Eze broke an Achilles tendon in training. After being transported to the doctor’s room to be assessed, his phone cracked from the text to say that he was in the provisional team for Euro 2020.
His faith allowed him to be phlegmatic. Two years later, Eze obtained the appeal that had been promised to him.
“It was a difficult moment, but even then, I had a huge feeling of peace,” he told Podcast Men in Blazers. “I thought God showed me this text for a reason, that I was on the right track. Sticking allows you to see life through the right lens.
In the protein studios of Shoreditch, in eastern London, Eze is at the center of the scene. Complete, rightly, with a number of “creative” to discuss his latest collaboration with New Balance. It is pushed to be on the verge of history with Palace.
“It was a bit of a strange season. Lots of ups and downs. But that’s how football sometimes takes place with different injuries and things. This is the end of the business of the season now, however, a special period of the season. I’m just excited that we still have so much to play for … ‘
In more ways than one for Ebelechi Eze.
