Wilfried Zaha leaves Crystal Palace with his legacy as club’s best ever player intact

You never forget your first love. 

Football was mine, more specifically Crystal Palace. Like my dad, and his dad before him, a hypnotherapist for the promotion-winning squad of 1978-79 under Terry Venables, all of us born and raised in South Norwood, a stone’s throw from the stadium.

Former England manager Sir Bobby Robson wonderfully described falling under football’s spell as: ‘It’s the noise, the passion, the feeling of belonging, the pride in your city.

‘It’s a small boy clambering up the stadium steps for the very first time, gripping his father’s hand, gawping at that hallowed stretch of turf beneath him and, without being able to do a thing about it, falling in love.’

For me that was Selhurst Park. And, later, that was Wilfried Zaha too. So pull up a chair, and let me tell you how Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha changed my life.

Promising beginnings 

I can’t actually remember his debut, a 2-1 loss against Cardiff in March 2010 when he replaced Stern John in the 80th minute, aged 17.

The month after, he signed his first pro contract, and the month after that Palace saved themselves from relegation with a 2-2 draw against Sheffield Wednesday, in the tensest game I’ve ever seen, at Hillsborough on the final day of the season.

That summer, minutes away from going into liquidation, a raucous protest outside Lloyds in London persuaded the bank to sell to local-boy-done-good Steve Parish and three Palace-supporting friends, turning a fresh page in the club’s history.

The first game of that new era was Leicester City at home, Zaha making his first senior start up front. Nineteen minutes in, Route One, Julian Speroni wallops the ball up to big Alan Lee. He flicks it on, Michael Morrison misjudges it, and, suddenly, running onto it is a skinny teenaged boy in a shirt four sizes too big wearing No 16. 

The crowd takes a sudden collective intake of breath.

Zaha was four when parents Tiendé and Armel relocated the family from Abidjan, the largest city in the Ivory Coast, to Thornton Heath, South London, in search of a better life.

He had eight siblings so things were a little crowded in the family home, a three-bed terraced house on Rothesay Road, the Selhurst Park floodlights soaring high above the tiled roofs.  

Like countless other boys he idolised Chelsea’s Ivorian striker Didier Drogba, and unlike countless other boys he dreamed of playing for Crystal Palace.

Aged 12, that dream was realised. Dougie Freedman, now sporting director, offered him a contract with seven people excitedly squeezed into one room and Wilf signed without even looking at it.

So it was a heck of a journey from Abidjan to the 19th minute of that match against Leicester. But if he realised the significance of that moment, he didn’t show it. 

Close enough to see goalkeeper Chris Weale’s eyes, relying on pure instinct, he sort of half-volley-karate-kicked it into the top corner. 

I still have no idea how he did it.

Fellow Palace academy product Kieron Cadogan then set up another of the goals in a 3-2 win. The Zaha epoch had begun.

Catching the eye

Palace fans watched on blissfully, gleefully, disbelievingly as Zaha ripped Manchester United apart in a 2-1 League Cup win in 2011 that put him onto the radar of the big clubs.

At relegation-threatened Peterborough’s London Road stadium in November 2012, play-off chasing Palace 1-0 down with 10 minutes left, a beautiful improvised flick from Zaha – on his 20th birthday – set up Andre Moritz’ equaliser. 

Two minutes after that, a corner was cleared and Zaha received the ball inside his own penalty area. He ran 70 yards, past half the opposition team, and fed Kagisho Dikgacoi, who smashed it in to send us top of the Championship.

After the game Posh boss Darren Ferguson gushed: ‘Zaha is the best player in this league and will go to the top. He was unplayable at times.’ We don’t know exactly what he said to his dad, legendary United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, on the phone that night but it probably started with ‘just f***ing sign’ and ended with ‘that kid’.

Ferguson Sr did so in January – but Zaha insisted he stay on loan at Palace for the rest of the season so he could finish the job he started and get the club promoted.

In the play-off semi-final second leg, in the enemy territory of bitter arch-rivals Brighton and with stricken 30-goal striker Glenn Murray out injured he scored the two gorgeously, viscerally celebrated second-leg goals to single-handedly fire Palace to Wembley.

Then in the final against hot favourites Watford, he tormented Italian international Marco Cassetti throughout and won the penalty leading to Kevin Phillips’ winner, sprinting around with joyous abandon at full-time as if he would burst from the sheer emotion if he ever stopped. It was some farewell gift.

The retiring Ferguson – arguably the greatest British manager ever – then bequeathed Zaha to his successor David Moyes, his last ever signing, passing the generational baton with a generational talent.

Abandoned by Manchester United 

A young, raw, skilful, preternaturally gifted but mercurial winger arrived at Old Trafford with big dreams, struggled initially but showed flashes of his explosive potential. Under Ferguson’s tutelage, Cristiano Ronaldo arguably became the best player in the world. See any parallels? 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying Zaha would have become the best in the world. But I’ll swear to my dying day he always had the ability to excel at United, but was never given the opportunity.

His time at Old Trafford is widely seen as a failure, despite only starting twice: in the Community Shield against Wigan and a League Cup tie against Norwich (both wins) before leaving for Cardiff on loan in January after two league appearances, off the bench.

While other less gifted wingers like Adnan Januzaj played 35 games that season, Zaha often wasn’t even given the chance to sit on the bench as the club refused to defend him from false accusations of liaisons with Moyes’ daughter.

Still just a boy, really, the club abandoned Zaha as he struggled to adapt to living away from home and family for the first time, dealing with the disappointment of being frozen out – and when Moyes was sacked, successor Louis van Gaal didn’t do much better.

The Dutchman told Zaha – at that stage an out-and-out winger – he was either a wing-back or a striker. When the 21-year-old was shackled by world-class defenders like Inter’s Nemanja Vidic and Real Madrid’s Sergio Ramos in pre-season friendlies, he was cast aside again, rejoining Palace on loan in August 2014.

Palace TV’s Chris Grierson simply said: ‘Welcome Home’. Two days after that, the player who writes his own scripts came off the bench against Newcastle and scored a 95th-minute equaliser. The Eagles brought him back permanently in January.

Four hundred and fifty-eight games and 90 goals later, the boy who grew up in the shadow of the stadium stands taller than anyone else in Palace’s history.

Cadogan, his team-mate that day against Leicester, hails his long-term transformation from boy to man to legend while speaking exclusively to Mail Sport.

He said: ‘I don’t think Wilf’s a one-trick pony (now), he’s not all about pace. He’s got great feet, he’s got skills to get himself out of any sticky situation.

‘Of course as you get older you’re going to have to adapt your game a little bit, but he’s got a good first touch. He can drift inside rather than going outside, there’s many ways he can adapt and I don’t think that’s a question mark over his head at all.’

The 32-year-old, who works for production company Total Media Limited and still struts his stuff for Sevenoaks Town FC, laughs when asked if Zaha is Palace’s G.O.A.T. (greatest of all time).

‘He’s probably up there with the most effective player. Best ever… Maybe Ian Wright, Clinton Morrison, absolute legends of the club. Best ever is such a broad question, it’s difficult to answer. I’m going to have to plead the Fifth on that one!’ 

No such doubts from this journalist.

Magic moments 

The Hometown hero’s stats are pretty impressive. More Premier League goals than Kevin De Bruyne, David Beckham, David Silva, Gianfranco Zola and Gareth Bale; as many top-flight assists as Freddie Ljungberg, Paul Ince and John Barnes.

Among wingers with at least 100 Premier League appearances since 2015-16, Opta stats reveal: he ranks top for matches played (260), successful dribbles (848), fouls won (775), ground duels won (1,949); second for penalties won (18); sixth for goals (64) and shots (474); seventh for big chances created (42) and tenth for assists (26).

Still, he’s never been one of those players you can nail down or define by raw data. He’s not simply a player of zeros and ones, of black and white. He’s a kaleidoscopic explosion of colour and soul. Most of all, he’s a deliverer of magic moments. 

Him and Yannick Bolasie combining with vicious aplomb against Huddersfield, and against Palace Women’s team in a training session. An incredibly imaginative acrobatic volley against Swansea. A scarcely believable double against Wolves.

Captaining Palace to victory against United with a goal and man-of-the-match performance, twice. Responding to West Ham fans singing ‘too s*** for England’ – ironic, given he has two more England caps than Mark Noble – by going up the other end and scoring a 97th-minute equaliser.

Inspiring Palace from 1-0 down in the 88th minute to winning 2-1 against Watford, sending the unfortunate Daryl Janmaat – still in a spin he hasn’t recovered from – to Morley’s for a bag of chips and a strawberry Mirinda after five dizzying stepovers. And, obviously, all the goals against Brighton.

If Lionel Messi’s iconic snapshot at Barcelona was holding up his shirt to the Real Madrid fans in 2017, Zaha’s equivalent was that wonderful solo goal against the Seagulls which saw him stand, hands on hips, facing the Holmesdale Road end as it erupted into glorious, euphoric pandemonium.

That – along with his celebration in the Brighton play-off win, and his roar of delight after Conor Gallagher’s goal against West Ham in 2021 – adorn the gorgeous mural in honour of his legacy unveiled in May next to Selhurst Park. 

Cadogan, 32, adds: ‘I’ve seen it, right next to the stadium, it’s lovely… 100 per cent, that is massive. It is a massive statement. That will be there for generations – his kids will grow up to see it, him growing up in the area as well. It’s an inspiration for all young kids coming up in the area.

‘I did speak to him the other day when I saw the mural. It’s funny, I said “I’ve never seen you smile so much” when he took the picture in front of it, and he kindly told me to f*** off! That’s Wilf for you, never smiling, but we caught him with a smile and you could tell he was happy.’

The tribute means Mr Crystal Palace has his feats commemorated in South London forever.

Truly South London 

Many non-Palace fans think he’s arrogant, a whinger and a diver. But that’s not the picture of the man. He gives away 10 per cent of his salary to charity, runs his own academy in Croydon and in June became joint-owner of AFC Croydon with Stormzy. 

Cadogan continues: ‘At Palace, the players are representing South London and so that’s always going to be very powerful for players. Obviously, Palace is close to Wilf’s heart.’ He is deeply and genuinely engaged in his local community.

Zaha doesn’t lack for self-belief now, true, but coaches and team-mates remember a young player and person who had to be slowly coaxed out of his shell. Whinger? Definitely. He can’t hide his emotions and openly gets frustrated on the pitch as he aims to maintain the loftiest standards for team-mates and himself.

As Cadogan insists, ‘It’s plain for everyone to see, he’s moany as hell! But saying that, it’s because he always demands the best from himself and the others around him. And he doesn’t care what other people think of him. That’s what has kept him at the top for so long.’ 

But diver? Don’t make me laugh. Ignore the constant baseless accusations, most infamously from a real adult man from Hertfordshire in a bee mascot costume. I’ve seen hundreds of his games. Has he gone down easy on occasion? Sure. 

But he simply does not fall down pretending there’s contact when there isn’t. I’ve seen England captain Harry Kane do it more than once in the same match. During a Premier League game last season one referee said to him: “I can’t keep giving you fouls.” Zaha responded: “Why not if I’m getting fouled?”

With Opta data showing since 2003-04 when these records began, he is by a distance the most fouled Premier League footballer (836), to Kevin Davies’ 727, it’s no surprise he carries permanently blackened toenails as relics from past battles.

Since his return to Palace in 2014-15, the 823 fouls he has suffered is miles ahead of Palace team-mate Jordan Ayew, in second with 496, and top across all Europe’s top five leagues – Andrea Belotti second on 803, Neymar third on 778. Lionel Messi, for reference, is eighth with 616. And Zaha doesn’t get half the fouls he should. 

Troy Deeney openly admitted to what Palace fans already know, that teams employ heavy but unpunished rotational fouling as Wilf gets more and more frustrated when he just wants to be treated the same. Ultimately, he’s just a classic South Londoner repping his ends, the ultimate cage fighter.

Scrappy, determined, a little rough around the edges but a diamond at heart. He is us, and that’s why we love him. If you cut him open – and many defenders have tried – he would bleed blue as well as red, which is fitting given he is royalty at The Palace.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a man or woman, black or white, Champions League winner or Championship. If you’re opposite him, he’s coming for you, “he’s just too good for you” ringing in your ears.

And now he goes to Galatasaray, an opportunity he has earnt a thousand times over, where he can finally test himself in the Champions League and prove to the doubters he can cut it at the highest level. 

Sure, there’s a nagging sense of what if. What if Fergie could have guided him at United? What if Arsenal had bought him instead of splashing £72m on Nicolas Pepe? What other memories could he have made at Palace if he stayed? But we’ve had him all these years, and that was enough. Au revoir, Wilf – we’ll always have Palace.

Long Live, reads the slogan of the clothing brand he co-founded. And Long Live he will. In the hearts and minds and dreams of anyone who ever saw him play and in the nightmares of flummoxed full-backs. 

In the oral histories we pass down to our kids, and them to their kids, embellishing with the hyperbole of nostalgia but furnishing with equally incredible truths too, like that time he did dribble past the entire Tottenham team and backheel it into the top corner, actually, thanks very much.

Sorcery enough to see him tried at Salem. Roy of the Rovers incarnate, the Thornton Heath boy with the terawatt smile, the weekend Starboy. Mortal but immortalised, now and forever.

Because this four-year-old Ivorian kid landing in a small corner of South London has grown up to drag this club we love to the promised land 10 years ago and kept us there almost single-handedly, carrying all our hopes and expectations on his back.

This isn’t an obituary, thank God and the heavens above. But if it were, it’s hard not to imagine him twirling into the next dimension like he does in this one, fizzing around the astral planes with glorious, carefree abandon, locked in an eternal embrace with the ball, while his offspring bamboozle the opposition and fire Palace to scarcely deserved points away at West Brom.

I’ve seen Premier League legends in the flesh – Rooney, Henry, Scholes, Terry, De Bruyne and more. He’s not the best of those. But none has made me feel things like him. 

No one ever took our breath away like that first time, and I doubt anyone ever will. 

You never forget your first love, they say. And Wilf was ours. So farewell, to the boy with magic in his boots and that everlasting glint in his eye.

Read More: World News | Entertainment News | Celeb News
Mail Online