Wilfried Zaha hits back at Crystal Palace forward Jean-Philippe Mateta after he claimed his former teammates ‘laughed’ at his dream of playing for France
Wilfried Zaha has hit back at Crystal Palace striker Jean-Philippe Mateta after a former teammate claimed he “laughed” at his dreams of representing France. Mateta has improved during his stay in south London, scoring 50 goals to date and recently securing his first call-up to the France national team.
After his selection, Mateta recalled how he was ridiculed by Zaha and other team-mates when he first revealed his ambition to play for his country.
“At Crystal Palace, right after the game started, when we weren’t playing, I talked about the France national team in the dressing room and my teammates, like Wilfried Zaha, laughed,” he told L’Equipe.
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“I was told I was crazy to think about playing for France when I hadn’t even played for Crystal Palace, but I said that was my aim and I just had to play to show what I was capable of. My dream was always to play for France and I knew the opportunity would come.”
Mr Zaha has now turned to social media to respond to his former palace colleague. He declared: “I’m sorry, but I got hot-headed. I have to resolve this situation for Mateta because he doesn’t want to. And this just shows me that.”
“Look when I was playing for Crystal Palace, people were watching me, but it’s clear they weren’t happy with me because I never made anyone feel bad. I never…
“Everyone knows me and when I’m the only one with passion on the pitch, I’ve never bullied anyone or told them they can’t be here or not at all or anything like that.
“It’s disgusting to see someone I thought of as a friend do something like that.”
Zaha later revealed what actually happened, saying: “The conversation was about the possibility of him playing for the France national team, when he wasn’t playing for Palace. There were 10 players he had this conversation with and as friends we laughed it off. But we joked that it would be difficult, especially with (Karim) Benzema and all these different players playing in such a position. But we never once said, ‘You can’t do it.’
“So wouldn’t you be shocked, especially when you make soccer jokes with your friends, wouldn’t you be shocked if this person told 10 people this?
“I swear to you, there were 10 Crystal Palace players there when this conversation took place. Wouldn’t you be shocked that this person would speak as if he had some kind of hatred towards me?”
“Why would he say my name when there were 10 people there? Is it because Zaha is the biggest name? I don’t understand. It’s disgusting. I’ve never hated anyone.
“Now I get messages: ‘Oh, you’re not laughing at Mateta right now.’ I couldn’t care less. Well done. I congratulated him publicly on Instagram as well. So when I hear that story come out, I’m like, oh my god.
Like, “Did you hate me all this time to come out with your upstart story of, ‘You’re going to use Zaha as your upstart story?'” That’s awkward, man, that’s awkward.
“This is why I don’t have any football friends. That’s why I keep to myself, because how is he going to do that?”
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