Wilfried Zaha has hit out at former Crystal Palace teammate Jean-Philippe Mateta in a social media post after accusing him of mocking his chances of playing for France.
Jean-Philippe Mateta has insisted that “everything is fine” with Wilfried Zaha after peace talks between the two Crystal Palace legends. A furious Zaha took to social media last week to claim the Ivorian winger had laughed at his dreams of playing for France, and accused the striker of giving an “unpleasant” and “nasty” interview.
However, ahead of Thursday’s UEFA Conference League match against AEK Larnaca, Mateta gave short answers to two questions about the feud. “I talked to him,” the Olympic silver medalist said. “Everything is fine for him.”
He added: “We’re talking privately and that’s it.”
When asked if Zaha had apologized to him, a Crystal Palace spokesperson intervened in the pre-match press conference and stated that Zaha did not wish to answer any further questions. Zaha, who left Palace in 2023, became a hot topic when he was filmed responding to an interview with Mateta.
Speaking to L’Equipe after his first international call-up and ahead of his first goal for France, the striker claimed: “At Crystal Palace, right after the game started, when we weren’t even playing, I talked about France in the dressing room and my teammates, like Wilfried Zaha, laughed.”
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“I was told that I was crazy for thinking about the French national team when I wasn’t playing for Crystal Palace, but I said that was my aim and I just had to play to show what I was capable of.”
In response, Zaha, who currently plays for Charlotte in Major League Soccer, said: “My head is hot. I have to resolve this situation for Mateta because he doesn’t want it.”
“I spoke to him and he didn’t want to. He’s fine with that. This shows me, the whole time I was playing for Crystal Palace, people were paying attention to me, but it’s clear they weren’t happy with me because I never made anyone feel ‘fucked’.
“I’ll never… not everyone knows me. The only time I’m on the pitch is when I’m passionate. But I’ll never bully someone or tell them they can’t be here or not at all or anything like that. It disgusts me when I see people I consider friends doing something like that.”
“The conversation we had there, when he wasn’t playing for Palace, was about the possibility of him playing for the French national team, and there were 10 players he had this conversation with. And as friends we laughed it off, but we joked about it. “It’s going to be difficult, especially with[Karim]Benzema, you have a range of different players who play in these positions.
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“But we never said you were never going to pass. Wouldn’t you be shocked if you found out that this person has some kind of hatred from me? Why does he say my name? 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. So now I get messages saying, ‘Oh, we’re not laughing at Mateta.’ I didn’t care. I think he did a good job.”
“I even publicly congratulated him on his Instagram. So when I hear that story coming out, I’m like, oh my god, did you hate me this whole time?”
“For you to come out with this, your come-up story, I’m going to use Zaha as my come-up story. It’s uncomfortable, dude, it’s uncomfortable. This is why I don’t have any football friends. This is why I keep myself to myself. ‘Cause how is he going to do that?”
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