‘I was astounded, genuinely astounded. An outstanding footballer, an outstanding person. He is a gift to any football club.’
The rhetorical question for Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish last September was: why had Eberechi Eze not been prised away from Selhurst Park?
Parish was pleased but perplexed. He has never shied away from the reality that, despite their own ambitions, Palace are a stepping stone to elite clubs. Michael Olise’s sale to Bayern Munich was a case in point.
On the back of a strong finish to last season and a European Championship with England, many expected Eze to follow suit.
Was it the £68million release clause? The niggling injuries? The fact he turns 27 in June? Or all of the above?
Those questions still apply today. Throw in that Eze has been wrestling with his form and you understand why there is still uncertainty over the move to an elite club his talent merits.
Crystal Palace chairman Steve Parish has hailed Eberechi Eze as a ‘gift to any football club’
Parish was pleased but perplexed that Eze has not been prised away from Selhurst Park
Eze’s superb volleyed goal against Arsenal on Wednesday was a reminder of his talents
Saturday’s FA Cup semi-final opponents at Wembley, Aston Villa, are on his lengthy list of admirers. Manchester United have called recently. Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and boyhood club Arsenal have also flirted with signing Eze but, so far, stopped short of committing to him.
‘There’s no doubting his ability,’ one Premier League manager told Mail Sport, ‘but has he been consistent enough this season to warrant that move up? And his injury record, for that price, we’d need someone more robust.’
Robust? When you know Eze’s pathway to the present day, that is not a characteristic you would question, but appraisals in football can often be delivered in blunt terms.
‘Ebbs has had quite a strange season,’ says Palace manager Oliver Glasner. ‘He was so unlucky in many situations. He had disallowed goals, deflected balls, hitting the post, everything, but he always keeps going.
‘He struggled with some injuries, also strange injuries with his foot. But he always has the confidence. We need this quality, every team needs this quality.’
Eze’s nonchalant volley against Arsenal on Wednesday and his role in Palace’s Cup quarter-final victory at Fulham were timely reminders of his capabilities.
An eye-catching performance at Craven Cottage was punctuated with a stunning goal, and he showed the kind of fleet-footed trickery observers have come to associate with a man who forged his skills in the claustrophobic spaces of south-east London’s crowded football cages.
Dubbed ‘Concrete Catalonia’ for its propensity to unearth Premier League talent, it is a harsh playground, an escape for the underprivileged where you learn to find solutions fast and hone resilience.
Eze played a starring role in Crystal Palace’s win over Fulham in the FA Cup quarter-finals
Palace will need Eze to be on song against when they face Aston Villa in the semi-finals
A lack of robustness has been touted as a reason why Eze has not moved to a bigger club
Eze emerged from what he admits is ‘the not so nice part’ of Greenwich, the Flamsteed estate, named after the first Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed. There, he played all day and night, often not eating, on the first steps to his football education. A place, he says, that will ‘forever be special’ and which he helps today with his foundation.
Born to churchgoing Nigerian parents Valentine and Nwugo, Eze, to tweak a phrase, has his world on his feet.
Bespoke moon shadow blue boots, which he designed with New Balance, are adorned with a constellation in a nod to the Royal Observatory that overlooks his old stomping ground.
Each star is named after those who are ‘dear to his heart’. ‘Every time I take to the pitch it’s as if they are playing with me,’ he says. ‘When I look down I remember where I’ve come from, what’s real, what’s true. To remain grounded.’
Eze does not seek validation from others but Glasner has underlined in recent weeks how important it was for him to be selected by Thomas Tuchel and score his first England goal against Latvia last month.
It was affirmation of the faith those close to him — his parents, two brothers and sister — had instilled when he was rejected by Arsenal at 13. The same followed at Fulham, Reading and Millwall. Swansea City, Sunderland and Bristol City all turned him down as well but mental fortitude and an unswerving belief ‘that God had given him a gift he was obligated to take to the end’, fuelled his persistence. His break came with a trial at QPR.
‘Myself and Andy Impey were taking a session and we just looked and thought, “Wow, who is this?”’ says QPR coach Paul Hall, who Eze calls one of the biggest influences on his career. ‘Your immediate thought is, “What’s wrong with him?”. We couldn’t understand how somebody so good had walked in on trial. You think it’s too good to be true.’
Hall, Impey and QPR technical director Chris Ramsey had recognised a supreme street footballer who merely required professional coaching.
Aston Villa and Man United are among Eze’s admirers, while Tottenham, Manchester City, Chelsea, Liverpool and boyhood club Arsenal have all flirted with signing the midfielder
Crystal Palace Oliver Glasner boss spoke of the importance of Eze’s selection for England
Eze played for Thomas Tuchel’s side against Latvia and scored his first England goal
‘It was the easy stuff he didn’t have, the positional play he needed coaching on,’ Hall says. ‘He needed coaches who understood street football and I played in the cages.’
At QPR, Eze felt understood. They were talking his language. Training alongside the maverick Ravel Morrison helped accelerate his creative flow.
Still, an occasional jolt was required. In his own words, Eze was having a ‘stinker’ when his mentor Ramsey reminded him at half-time: ‘You were nearly working at Tesco’s if we didn’t sign you.’
There were more than a few reward points for QPR, though, when Crystal Palace star finder Dougie Freedman stepped in ahead of West Ham in 2020 to sign Eze for £19.5million.
Key to Freedman’s pitch was former England manager Roy Hodgson, then in charge of Palace, who had vowed to make Eze a better player.
Palace analysis showed Eze had been having an impact on QPR games for up to 25 minutes, but Hodgson was able to improve that to an hour.
Eze credited Hodgson with opening his eyes to so much more. ‘Not just about football but how to carry myself as a person.’ The two formed an unlikely bond.
Not that there was much to manage. Eze, tee-total and well-mannered, would attend church on Sundays with then team-mate Nathan Ferguson.
Ex-England and Crystal Palace boss Roy Hodgson helped to improve Eze’s impact on games
Eze formed an unlikely bond with Hodgson and says he opened his eyes to more than football
Eze has helped push Palace to the brink of history and has been tipped to achieve much more
Hodgson encouraged Eze’s competitive nature, even in chess and table tennis. It started to take effect. Word spread about Eze’s potential to earn an international call-up.
A little help from family didn’t go amiss, either, as his comedienne cousin Ego Nwodim took to wearing a Palace away shirt on US cult TV show Saturday Night Live.
‘Players of his type will always be watched,’ says Hodgson. ‘But he’s the one who has got to maintain that level. He can take his career as far as he wants while he is prepared to work for it. He’s already shown the ability, skill and mentality.’
But Eze’s journey was about to meet another stumbling block. Just as Gareth Southgate was to give him his first England cap, Eze ruptured an achilles tendon in training. After being carried into the doctor’s room to be assessed, his phone pinged with the text to say he was in the provisional squad for Euro 2020.
His faith allowed him to be phlegmatic. Two years later, Eze earned the call-up he had been promised.
‘It was a difficult moment but even then I had a huge sense of peace,’ he told the Men in Blazers podcast. ‘I believed God showed me that text for a reason, that I was on the right path. Staying rooted allows you to see life through the right lens.’
In the Protein Studios of Shoreditch, east London, Eze is centre stage. Invited, aptly, with a number of ‘creatives’ to discuss his latest collaboration with New Balance. He is pushed on how it feels to be on the brink of history with Palace.
‘It’s been a bit of a weird season. Lots of ups and downs. But that’s just how football goes sometimes with different injuries and stuff. It’s the business end of the season now, though, a special time of the season. I’m just excited we still have so much to play for…’
In more ways than one for Eberechi Eze.
