
Football
Share
Published 17:23 16 Oct 2025 BST
Updated 17:23 16 Oct 2025 BST

Crystal Palace legend Wilfried Zaha has launched into his ex-teammate Jean Philppe Mateta in a video that was posted to social media on Tuesday.
Zaha was responding to a claim made this week by Mateta to the French press, in which he suggested that while he and Zaha both played in the Premier League, the Ivory Coast winger had laughed off any chance of Mateta ever playing for the French national team.
28-year-old Mateta was called up to Didier Deschamps' France team for the first time last week, before going on to score in only his second ever appearance for Les Blues.
Speaking to French outlet L'Equipe, Mateta said: “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 team-mates 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.”
Zaha, who now plays his football in MLS with Charlotte, was evidently enraged by Mateta's accusation and wasted to time in responding.
He took to social media to post a video in response, where he vehemently denied Mateta's claim.
Video credit: https://x.com/jxj_cpfc
Mateta and Zaha played together for two and a half years at Selhurst Park, before Zaha departed for Turkish side Galatasaray in 2023.
Explore more on these topics:
Football

How the final Premier League table would look if every refereeing error was erased
Things would have looked very different. Every major refereeing decision leading up to the final few weeks of the Premier League season have been analysed, to establish how things may have played out differently, had PGMO officials always made the correct calls, in an impressive new report from the Athletic. The 2025/26 season ultimately ended […]
Football
1 day ago
Here’s why French fans riot – even when their team wins
It’s now an infamous tradition Following Paris Saint-Germain’s win in the Champions League final against Arsenal on Saturday, at least 780 people across France were arrested with more than 450 in custody, as football fans clashed with police. A person was found dead after an accident on Paris’s ring road, which rioters tried to block […]
Football
2 days ago
WATCH: Comical moment footballer is run over by his own medical team
Football