OTD: Wilfried Zaha makes Crystal Palace debut (2010)

It was a bitterly cold north-eastern night and Zaha, just 17-years-old, was on the cusp of a game that would shape his career forever.

The teamsheet for that evening didn’t even spell his name right – the second ‘i’ in Wilfried stumping its author – but the teenage No.9 was beginning 90 minutes of football that would turn him from an overlooked hopeful to a world-renowned icon, and a Crystal Palace legend.

The month before, he’d struggled to secure a place on the wings of a competitive Under-18 team. The month after, he’d make the first of 458 competitive appearances for the team whose stadium he grew up just outside of.

And although his eventual departure to Galatasaray – where he scored 10 times and assisted five goals in 45 games, including against Manchester United in the Champions League – ended that tally, his profound influence on Crystal Palace is celebrated to this day with his spectacular mural outside Selhurst Park, just off Holmesdale Road.

On the 15th anniversary of his first-team debut – 27th March, 2010 – this is the story of how Wilfried Zaha did it.

Growing up, Zaha was an unassuming, quiet boy who kept himself to himself until he took to a football field. He’d been part of Crystal Palace’s Academy from the age of eight, when a club scout scooped him from the hashed Sunday League pitches of Whitehorse Wanderers and set him on the path to global stardom.

“He was very introverted,” recalls Academy Director Gary Issott, who has known Zaha for almost 20 years. “He would come in, do his work and be no problem.”

As an adult, Zaha can trigger the rippled drumming of 25,000 seats clattering against their supports as Selhurst Park collectively rises with the winger on the ball. The effect was – and still is – staggering: a humming Mexican wave of plastic striking metal, a unified intake of breath, silence, and then – with Zaha’s boots conducting the orchestra - bedlam.

But for eight years as he grew from a child to a teenager, the youngster didn’t leap out as a star in the making.

“He was a good player and a top player,” Issott continues, “one of the top five in the group. But he wasn’t someone who, as a 16-year-old, played up in the Under-18s, which lots of players have done and continue to do as early developers. His was a slow process.”

Zaha’s reserved nature and reluctance to draw attention meant that when he reached a crucial stage in youth football – 16 – he’d spent four years under the parapet, and, in his strides towards adulthood, only the odd individual had their attention caught by the dazzling prospect.

Fellow Academy graduate Kieron Cadogan remembers his first encounter with a future teammate: “I was walking over to the Under-18s pitch and we passed the Under-16s game and I stopped and said: ‘Wow, who is that?’ His feet were an absolute joke; so quick. And he was just bursting with confidence.”

With the speed of a lightning bolt and the trickery of a conman, Zaha earned a place in the Palace Academy full-time – but, just eight months off his professional debut, the teenager had a long way to go yet.

Issott remembered it well: “For the first three or four months, he was getting used to full-time training and the professionalism of everything and he didn’t play as much as he’d like in the Under-18s.”

For Zaha himself, that period stood out. “When I reached Under-18s,” he later told Palace TV, “I went through a spell where I wasn’t playing at all. I’ve never been through that phase, you know, as a footballer, where you go through rough patches. That was the first time.

“I used to go home and actually cry at times because I was thinking: ‘What do I do?’ It’s a thing where you’ve got to be mentally strong. I was just like: ‘You know what? I just need to carry on’ and I pushed through that spell.”

Perhaps, with trademark resilience and determination being hallmarks of his game today, Zaha’s turbulent start forged the inner strength that went on to define the sportsman. It certainly paved the way for solidifying a place in the Under-18s and, having proved his worth, Zaha’s name steadily became the buzzword across youth football.

“Steve Bould made a comment to me about Wilf when he was taking Arsenal’s youth team,” Issott revealed. “So did Gary Brazil, who was a long experienced coach at Fulham. [They said] how many problems he caused them, what a handful he was on the day and how difficult he was to play against.

“There were more and more people outside of our club who we were playing against and he was making a mark. People would think that’s commonplace, it’s not. It’s only every now and again that people comment on special players in your team.”

Something was changing within the club, too, and the once unnoticed youngster was fast gaining attention; fast catching eyes and clanging seats, commanding his watchers to stand. Issott elaborates: “The first-team were off and Mick Jones came to a friendly game [v Leyton Orient] - he was Neil Warnock’s old assistant.

“He pointed Wilf out. He said: ‘Who’s that?’. ‘Oh, it’s Wilfried Zaha, he’s just got in the team, he’s doing really well.’ He said: ‘I really like him, he’s got something.’ I then remember Dougie [Freedman, the assistant manager when Zaha earned his debut] coming up one afternoon and watching him and saying: ‘Who’s that?’ ‘That’s Zaha; he’s decent.’”

And then it came: the turning point, the night Wilfried Zaha’s name would pass from the hushed lips of London’s youth coaches to the attention of Crystal Palace’s manager, board and fanbase.

St James’ Park, 25th February 2010. Wilfried Zaha has a point to prove as he steps into a bitterly cold north-eastern night on the cusp of a game that would shape his career forever. The month before, he’d struggled to secure a place on the wings of a competitive Under-18 team. The month after, he’d make the first of 458 Crystal Palace appearances – the club's third highest total of all-time.

Palace were playing Newcastle in the FA Youth Cup against an Under-18 side including Paul Dummett and Sammy Ameobi. The Eagles had Jonny Williams, Ibra Sekajja and Alex Wynter, but 'Wilfred' Zaha was the only name on the teamsheet that mattered.

“Newcastle away was when I thought: ‘He’s got a major chance of playing in the first-team here,’” Issott recalls.

“We lost on the night 4-2. Wilf had won two penalties and was outstanding. I remember texting [former Palace CEO] Phil Alexander on the way back: ‘We lost the tie, but I’ve seen a performance tonight that’s given me real hope of someone that can play in our first-team.’”

Issott’s intuition was right, and it was perfectly timed, too. Palace’s management had an eye out for new recruits to bolster its threadbare squad as, days after Zaha’s Newcastle masterpiece, Paul Hart, John Pemberton and Freedman took hold of a club hurtling towards relegation under the weight of administration.

Pemberton, the then-first-team coach, describes it vividly: “We needed to see what was in and around the youth-team because we could hardly stick subs together,” he says. “We had no players.

“I said to Paul: ‘I’ll go and take the youth-team and I’ll do a couple of sessions and just see what’s in there.’ And Wilf was one. We looked at Wilf and said: ‘He’s alright, Wilf, this kid’s alright. Let’s bring him up with us.’

“The first thing I noticed about him when he trained with the first-team was that some people can ruin a session – he never did that. He added a quality to our training sessions. The other thing I noticed about him was he obviously had really good feet, his technique was good, but he was quite tough. The first-team players would kick him all over the place and he’d just get on with it.”

Already established with the seniors, Cadogan elaborates on the youngster’s qualities and how he made his opportunity count: “Stepping up to the youth-team he was confident, and stepping up to the first-team he was the same. You are playing with men, with experience, but he didn’t give a damn. He was himself.

“I don’t think he needed any advice; he just came through and did what he does. I don’t remember him ever asking for much advice on how to play or adapt. And that’s why he has gone so far in the game; he just does what comes natural to him.”

“I used to be there and not say a word,” Zaha remembers. “I used to literally go out and just try to prove that I was good enough to be there, not go out there and muck about because you get hammered instantly if you’re not giving 100%.”

Zaha was at the zenith of his career so far, and yet he was right back where he’d started: unassuming and quiet, keeping himself to himself until he took to a football field. He retained an attitude fine-tuned by tunnel vision and a skillset unmatched even amongst his professional superiors.

Then, on 27th March 2010, it all paid off. After almost 10 years of quietly working in the Palace Academy, Zaha was finally preparing for his professional debut.

Palace were trailing Cardiff City 2-1 at a drizzly Selhurst Park. The No.36 was held up as Stern John trotted from the field. On the sidelines, a 17-year-old Wilfried Zaha waited eagerly, his loose long-sleeved shirt billowing over his shorts; his shorts, in turn, billowing around his knees.

Stepping on to the turf, a smile took over his face. ‘This is all I wanted,’ he thought, before making number one out of 458 Crystal Palace games. ‘This is everything I’ve gone through.

‘This is finally it.’