BOOM, BOOM, BOOM, BOOM!
Mateta burst into the room on an initial 18-month loan deal in January 2021. He wrote his name into Palace folklore with his first goal being a sensational backheel nutmeg against Brighton & Hove Albion.
14Jean-PhilippeMateta
out on loan
ST
Forward
Date of Birth
28.06.9728 June 1997
Country
Joined Team
31.01.2231 January 2022
All time
Palace career
97
Appearances
29
Goals
Awards & Honours
Player of the Season
Crystal Palace, 2023/24
Players' Player of the Season
Crystal Palace, 2023/24
Paris-born Mateta had impressed in the Bundesliga for Mainz with 10 goals in 17 appearances across all competitions in 20/21. He moved to south London as the German side's top scorer.
He began his professional career in the French third-tier, before making a major move to seven-times champions Lyon. After excelling on loan with Le Havre, Mateta moved to Mainz, where he established himself as a regular in the German top-flight, scoring 27 goals in 71 games in total, including a hat-trick against SC Freiburg during this campaign.
On the international stage, Mateta was part of the France side that reached the last four of the Under-21 European Championships in 2019, scoring the opening goal in the semi-final.
Mateta was born in the Sevran suburb of Paris, the youngest of seven children. He began playing for a club out of town from the age of 14, spending hours travelling from home each day to make training.
Unlike many young French players, Mateta’s formative years were not spent in the development centre of a major club; instead, he did it the hard way.
After impressing in a trial with then third-division side Châteauroux, he left home for good aged 17 and embarked on the journey to professional football.
Having impressed at Châteauroux with 16 goals in 27 first-team appearances, Mateta secured a big move to title challengers Lyon.
However, his first-team minutes were limited in a frustrating season, with three appearances to his name. When the chance of a loan move and first-team football came knocking, he took it.
Signing for second division Le Havre, Mateta scored 17 league goals to power his new side towards promotion. In the play-off semi-finals, he scored twice in a 2-2 draw before they were knocked out via penalty shoot-out.
It was at Le Havre that Mateta was able to showcase his eye for goals. “You’re born a striker,” he said. “You are born and greedy for goals. Even as a little boy, I wanted to score, save my team, score the winning goal in close matches and be the one whose name is roared by the fans.”
Attracting attention in Germany, Mateta moved to Mainz for a club-record fee, and found himself back at the top level of European football. Having grown up playing on the streets of Paris, he didn’t let the higher intensity scupper his development:
“If you have learned to play football on the street, you automatically become a fighter,” he told German media.
“Wherever I ended up in my career, there were almost always guys who I thought: ‘They have more comprehensive football training, they are more technically complete, they can do this and that better than me.’ But the point always came when I said to myself: ‘I’m going to destroy it all the more.’
“I was more hungry.”
Having settled in south London, Mateta earned the favour of Palace fans with his first ever goal - a backheel flick - coming in a 1-2 victory away at Brighton. He also netted against local rivals Millwall, knocking the Lions out of the FA Cup in 2021/22.
These efforts saw his loan-move turn into a four-and-a-half-year permanent deal on deadline day in January 2022.
Upon Roy Hodgson's return, Mateta netted a dramatic stoppage-time winner against Leicester City to spark one of the great Selhurst Park celebrations in April 2023. He finished 2022/23 with two goals in 32 games across all competitions.
The start of the 2023/24 season saw the Frenchman pick up minutes off the bench, though he did score a hat-trick against Plymouth Argyle in the EFL Cup. He really got into his stride in December 2023, scoring in back-to-back games against title-chasing Liverpool and Manchester City.
With the arrival of new manager Oliver Glasner in February 2024, Mateta became the focal-point of his attacks and his form saw a rapid uptick. He scored 13 goals in the 13 Premier League games that remained, including back-to-back braces against West Ham and Newcastle.
He signed off 23/24 in some style, netting a hat-trick in a resounding 5-0 thumping of Aston Villa on the final day of the season. This was Palace's first hat-trick since Yannick Bolasie's triple against Sunderland almost a decade ago. His stats for the season saw him average almost a goal every other game, with 19 in 39 appearances across all competitions.
The striker's performances saw him rewarded with a call-up to Thierry Henry's France squad for the 2024 Olympic Games, which is hosted in Mateta's hometown of Paris.
Player Statistics2024/25
Goals5
Appearances14
01 / 04
Player StatisticsCareer
Goals95
Appearances233
Mateta highlights
View All Videos- 02:17
Goal of the Month contenders: October 2024
- 16:06
Access All Over | Crystal Palace 1-0 Spurs
- 04:20
All Angles | JP's Fine First-Half Strike
- 110:29
The Full 90: Crystal Palace v Tottenham Hotspur | Palace TV+
- 13:40
Extended Highlights: Crystal Palace 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur | Palace TV+
- 01:33
Mateta discusses winning goal
- 02:15
Two-minute highlights: Crystal Palace 1-0 Tottenham Hotspur
- 12:14
Access All Over Crystal Palace v Leicester
- 02:36
Match Action: Crystal Palace 2-2 Leicester City
- 01:21
Mateta on late comeback against Foxes
- 106:08
The Full 90: Crystal Palace vs Norwich | Palace TV+
- 13:41
Extended Highlights: Crystal Palace 4-0 Norwich | Palace TV+
- 02:06
Mateta talks through amazing goal