428: Jean-Philippe Mateta, Crystal Palace, Panini Premier League Adrenalyn XL 2023

In May 2025 my beloved Crystal Palace won their first major trophy in their 120 year history when Eberechi Eze’s exquisite strike downed Manchester City in the FA Cup final. Just over a year later a club that had only ever experienced European football in a short lived Intertoto Cup campaign and the Anglo-Italian Cup celebrated victory in the Europa (Vauxhall) Conference League final with a nerveless 1-0 victory over Rayo Vallecano. This seemingly linear progress came with several caveats. Palace only ended up in the Conference League due to some poor admin, a miserable bastard at Nottingham Forest and the shady world of multi-club ownership. The drawn out process of finding out which obscure clubs would be heading to South London on Thursday nights hampered recruitment and did little to convince the likes of Eze and captain Mark Guehi to stick about. The former headed to Arsenal while the latter’s aborted move to Liverpool saw manager Oliver Glasner personally intervene in the transfer. When Guehi moved to Manchester City in January shortly after non-league Macclesfield Town knocked Palace out of the same cup they had only just got their heads round holding, the Austrian announced his intention to leave the club at the end of the season.

In many ways this season has summed up Crystal Palace in a nutshell. This is a club that can’t agree on when it was formed, misspelled its name on its badge and hasn’t played its home games near the site of the building its named after, which burnt down in 1936, since the First World War. Palace didn’t feature in the English top flight until 1970, endured back-to-back relegations between 1972 and 1974 and spent much of the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s bouncing between the top two divisions with a few notable periods in administration for good measure. For every Ian Wright there were several Ade Akinbiyis and Calvin Andrews. The brilliance of Steve Coppell was tempered by the intransigence of Dave Bassett and Steve Bruce. The fact that Palace have been a top flight side for the last thirteen seasons is frankly absurd and the recent glut of silverware is the kind of thing that only used to happen when I overwrote Charlton Athletic on FIFA and Pro Evo and souped up my created players’ stats. For those of us who lived through Itzik Zohar and Tomas Brolin, or were regaled with tales of Mel Blyth’s backpasses, the current incarnation of the club feels like a fever dream. When Jean-Philippe Mateta smashed in the winner in the Conference League final it felt like a victory for the Crystal Palace of yore.

Amidst this January’s attempt at self-destruction came the news that the French striker was in the process of moving to Italian giants AC Milan. While this would have been another hammer blow to take it wasn’t one that seemed unreasonable. Mateta had scored the equaliser in the Community Shield victory over Liverpool, the club’s first European goal against Frederikstad and a hat trick against a strong Bournemouth side in the first half of the season. With the World Cup approaching Mateta understandably wanted to push his case for a place in Didier Deschamps’ squad and the wheels falling off at Selhurst Park was hardly ideal. Unlike in the summer Palace had moved to bring in replacements in the form of Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Jorgen Strand Larsen and Tottenham Hotspur’s Brennan Johnson but a knee injury during Mateta’s medical kept him in South London. When he returned from the aforementioned knock in March certain sections of the Palace support booed him for having the temerity to change his employment circumstances. Ever the professional he helped Palace through the latter stages of the Conference League and his winning goal in Leipzig was his sixteenth in all competitions. Collared after the final whistle he joyously told pundits he felt “f***ing fantastic” before leading celebrations armed with his GoPro.

Mateta arrived at Palace, initially on loan, from Mainz following spells at Chateauroux, Lyon and Le Havre and quickly wrote his name into the club’s folklore with a backheeled goal against ‘El Gatwicko’ rivals Brighton and Hove Albion. This early promise was limited somewhat by Patrick Vieira’s belief that Odsonne Edouard was a better option up top but, following the Frenchman’s departure, he forged a formidable front three alongside Michael Olise and the aforementioned Eze. Under Oliver Glasner he began scoring for fun and finished as the club’s top scorer in both the 2023/24 and 2024/25 seasons. He also earned his first international call up for the 2024 Paris Olympics and repaid Thierry Henry’s faith with goals against New Zealand, Argentina, Egypt and Spain as the hosts finished as runner’s up. Add in a signature celebration, excellent hold up play and a phenomenal work rate and it’s not the biggest surprise that his name has been regularly linked to clubs beyond SE25. He now has a chance to further raise his profile at the World Cup.

What this means for Jean-Philippe Mateta, or Palace, is impossible to say. France boast an impressive squad and have every chance of taking home their third World Cup. While this may not put Mateta in Ballon d’Or contention it would undoubtedly add to his big name suitors and it would seem churlish to begrudge him a move to another European footballing powerhouse. Anyone who feels this is somehow a betrayal of Crystal Palace is kidding themselves. Similar delusion seems to have permeated a famously realistic fan base in recent years with chat about breaking into the top six or being European regulars becoming worryingly prevalent. It’s worth remembering that no one under the age of 21 has first hand experience of a Palace relegation and therefore seem to forget the cautionary tale that actual rivals Charlton provided when they binned off Alan Curbishley’s quiet competence for Iain Dowie’s bouncebackability. If Mateta leaves Palace he should leave as a hero who played a huge part in securing the club’s first (and second and third) major trophy. Then again another year of Thursday nights around the continent with him booting corner flags all over the place is a tempting alternative.