In the dressing room after May’s FA Cup final, Eberechi Eze pushed his player-of-the-match award into the hands of Ismaila Sarr, insisting his teammate was more deserving. This time Eze didn’t need to be so generous. Sarr tricked Virgil van Dijk into conceding a penalty, scored a second-half equaliser and calmly converted his kick in the shootout as Palace beat Liverpool to win the Community Shield.
Sarr was dancing on the pitch when his award was announced over Wembley’s public address system. It was now long after the full-time whistle and most of his teammates were in pieces – the captain Marc Guehi had pulled up with cramp in the heat – but their Senegalese forward was still moving his legs, hips swaying, a broad smile across his face.
Sarr was a constant thorn in Liverpool’s side all afternoon, peeling into the spaces left by expensive new full-backs Jeremie Frimpong and Milos Kerkez as they advanced, or in the latter’s case as they wandered out of position, and it was in that gap that he darted to thrash home Palace’s second goal off Alisson Becker’s right post.
His movement pulled Van Dijk and Ibrahima Konate into uncomfortable places, and his pressing almost brought another goal when he robbed Dominik Szoboszlai near the halfway line and drove upfield before picking the right pass to Eze, only for Alisson to thwart the shot.
In this era in which high-intensity sprints are an increasingly valuable commodity, Sarr is the prototype of a modern forward: quick and direct, fit and strong, able to tackle, carry, finish and run for 100 minutes. That relentlessness extends to his career as a whole. Sarr played 47 games last season and missed only one match, with illness. Aged 27, he has 73 caps for Senegal, the ninth highest tally in the history of the men’s national team.
Sarr is an understated character and he likes it that way. Perhaps Palace do, too. Their more heralded England internationals such as Eze, Guehi and Wharton have been linked with moves to Champions League clubs and their futures will remain a source of discontent until they are either sold or the transfer window shuts on 1 September.
It has been a summer of stasis at Selhurst Park. Only £3m has been spent on two players who are most likely squad fillers. It was no great surprise to see the same XI who started the FA Cup final start again at Wembley here.
The uncertainty over which European tournament they will play in this season has not helped. The Court of Arbitration of Sport is set to rule on Monday whether Palace will enter the Europa League or Conference League after contravening Uefa’s multi-club ownership rules.
The highly regarded sporting director Dougie Freedman departed suddenly in March for Saudi Arabia after becoming frustrated by a lack of resources, and no doubt enticed by the resources on offer Saudi Arabia. It was a blow and a warning of what could happen with manager Oliver Glasner if he is not given sufficient backing to kick on. He has been blunt over the recent weeks, bemoaning a “passive” transfer window as he tries to avoid Palace becoming a “one-hit wonder”.
Now they have a second hit in three months, and this unexpected triumph, like the FA Cup, was in no small part down to Sarr’s prowess. Unlike some of his sought-after teammates, Palace have Sarr tied to a long-term contract, a reliable pillar in the club’s uncertain future. An hour after the full-time whistle, he was the last Crystal Palace player to leave the pitch, draped in foil streamers, still smiling. And he was still running.
