The winger was given no support in a difficult transitional year but has rebuilt his career to become a Crystal Palace icon and Galatasaray star
Wilfried Zaha finally made his first start for Galatasaray on Saturday, and celebrated by scoring his first goal for the Turkish giants. It was the type of breath-taking move he has made a habit of producing throughout his career and Ankaragucu, who were leading 1-0 at the time, were the latest in a long line of victims.
Zaha received the ball on the left of the box and swivelled away from one defender with a swift turn of his body and a flick of his left foot, brushing past another before unleashing an unstoppable strike high into the net. Zaha almost set up another goal just two minutes later with another incisive run inside from the left wing and an inviting cross for Tete, who took the ball around the goalkeeper before somehow missing the target.
Zaha came off to a standing ovation from the 52,000 fans inside RAMS Park, the perfect send off for the biggest game so far of his Turkish adventure: Tuesday's Champions League showdown with Manchester United at Old Trafford. Zaha has fond memories of facing the Red Devils, scoring twice in a 3-1 win for Crystal Palace at the Theatre of Dreams on the opening day of the 2020-21 season and the only goal in a 1-0 win on the final day of the following campaign.
His memories of playing for United are much less fond, however; his season with the club the one disappointing footnote in an otherwise brilliant career. Indeed, it is easy to forget that Zaha even played for the Red Devils. After signing for United from boyhood club Palace in January 2013 for £10 million ($12m), he went on to play a mere 28 minutes of Premier League football with the club. He was only named on the bench seven times and that was despite the fact he had no notable injuries.
Just two years later and after an unsuccessful loan spell with Cardiff City, Zaha rejoined Palace for £3m ($3.6m), going on to resurrect his career with the Eagles and turning into one of the best wingers in the Premier League. Last summer he departed for Galatasaray as one of the club's greatest-ever players, having scored 90 goals and contributed 76 assists.
Zaha is far from the only player to fail to meet huge expectations at United, but the story of his miserable time in Manchester and how he rebuilt his career away from Old Trafford says less about him and far more about the club's inability to nurture talent in the post-Sir Alex Ferguson era…
Getty Recommended by Ferguson's son
Zaha was already causing a stir in the Championship with Palace in the 2012-13 season, but it took a personal recommendation for United to take notice. And the recommendation came from Ferguson's son, Darren, who had just watched his Peterborough side be torn apart by Zaha in a 2-1 home defeat and, according to , phoned his father that same night. “This boy is the real deal,” he said. “He has everything you’re looking for.”
Weeks later, Zaha met Ferguson and Sir Bobby Charlton in a London hotel to discuss a move to United, and by late January 2013 he had sealed his his switch, although the deal allowed Palace to keep him on loan for the remainder of the campaign.
Zaha continued to work his magic for Palace and his nifty footwork proved decisive in the play-off final against Watford, earning the penalty which Kevin Phillips converted to send the Eagles back to the Premier League.
Zaha's future at United had already been dealt an unexpected setback, however. Ferguson had announced he was retiring and the man who had brought him to the club had gone. So too had his entire coaching staff, and when David Moyes arrived as Ferguson's successor, he sought instant results and did not want to take a chance on a 20-year-old with no top-flight experience.
AdvertisementGettyMoyes 'not keen'
Moyes started Zaha in the Community Shield against Wigan but took him off after an hour having been left unimpressed with his performance. He gave him just one more start, in a League Cup routing of Norwich. According to , Zaha and Moyes barely spoke with each other during the course of the season.
Zaha opened up on his difficult spell at United in a 2021 interview with the and revealed that he instantly felt Moyes did not believe in him. While he regrets not trying to make a bigger impression on his team-mates, he felt alone.
"Going there, and I’m thinking it’s all going to go well and then being hit with a manager that’s not keen on you and being away from home, I was a bit shell-shocked, like what do I do now?" he said. "Even then, I didn’t go to the manager’s office and ask why I wasn’t playing, I didn’t have the confidence to do those things. It was just accepting and hoping he’d change his mind."
Zaha also felt that as United started to fall apart under Moyes, he was "forgotten about". Moyes continued to ignore Zaha and turned to teenager Adnan Januzaj from the academy instead. In January, Zaha was loaned out to Cardiff, then coached by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. The winger got just five starts with the club, who were relegated at the end of the season.
Getty Images'Alone with my thoughts'
Zaha had immense talent but he was still young and had barely been outside of south London for an extended period before. He found moving 200 miles north to Manchester traumatic and was often on his own. He confessed to spending his evenings watching television alone and eating croissants for dinner.
“That’s one thing people don’t think about as much. Before that, I’d never moved away from south London at all, but then, all of a sudden, I had that pressure of playing for the title winners," he told .
"That pressure and moving away from home was just crazy. I just didn’t have the basics like how to cook. Coupled with things like that off the field, it made things more difficult. I did have family that came up, but they went back to London sometimes. They were there with me but the times they went back would feel even worse because I was by myself and alone with thoughts. I was in a whole different place and not playing football, either, so it made things more depressing by 10."
GettyFalse rumours and depression
There was also the completely untrue rumour that been doing the rounds on social media that Zaha was not getting in the United team because he had slept with Moyes' daughter. Zaha felt he was given no support or advice from the club on how to deal with it, and he sank into a depression.
"Obviously, getting to United isn’t easy, so not being given a chance is hard to take. I don’t regret anything because it made me stronger. I feel as though I can deal with anything now,” he told in 2018.
"I went through so much with United, with England. There were rumours that the reason I wasn’t playing for United was because I slept with David Moyes’ daughter, and no one attempted to clear that up. So I was fighting my demons by myself, these rumours that I knew weren’t true.
"I was dealing with this at 20; living in Manchester by myself, nowhere near anyone else, because the club had a hold over where I lived. They hadn’t given me a car, like every other player. Nothing. I’m living in this hell by myself, away from my family, and I thought: ‘If this doesn’t make me stronger, what will?’
"When I was at United I had money but I was still so down and depressed. People think your life’s different because you’ve got money, you’ve got fame, so they don’t treat you the same.”