"At Crystal Palace, right at the start, when I wasn't even playing, I spoke about the France team in the dressing room and I had teammates like Wilfried Zaha who were laughing. They said that I was mad to think about the France team when I wasn't even playing at Crystal Palace, but I responded saying that it was my objective and that I simply had to play to show what I could do."
"The Ivorian forward called the accusations "disgusting" and denied ever trying to put down a team-mate's ambitions. "Everyone knows me, the only time on a pitch is when I'm passionate and all of that stuff but I never bullied someone or said someone won't make it here or won't make it at all or nothing like that," Zaha said. "It's disgusting when I see someone who I thought was a friend do that.""
Jean-Philippe Mateta said teammates laughed when he expressed his ambition to play for France while not playing regularly for Crystal Palace. Mateta recalled being told he was 'mad' for aiming at the France team and insisted the goal remained his objective, requiring playing time to prove his ability. Wilfried Zaha denied ever mocking a teammate's ambitions and described the claim as disgusting. Zaha insisted he never bullied anyone and said the exchange was friendly banter involving several players, disputing Mateta's recollection of the conversation and prompting social-media reaction.
Read at 101GREATGOALS.COM
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]