About

Welcome to the official site of Professional footballer Wilfried Zaha.

Wilfried Zaha was born on 10 November 1992 in the Ivory Coast, moving to the UK at the age of 4. He grew up in Croydon, England and was scouted for the Crystal Palace Eagles Academy at the age of 12.

After six years progressing through the youth ranks, Wilfried made his debut appearance for Crystal Palace against Cardiff on 27th March 2010 aged 17 years old. On 7th August 2010, he scored his first senior goal in a 3-2 win against Leicester City and played 44 matches during the 2010/11 season/

The 2011/12 EFL Championship saw Wilfried being named The Football League’s Young Player of the Year and Crystal Palace’s Young Player of the Year for a second time in a row, having scored 9 goals and made 5 assists in 48 appearances.

Wilfried’s performances sparked much interest from other clubs, and in January 2013, Sir Alex Ferguson signed him to Manchester United, though Wilfried insisted on remaining on loan at Crystal Palace Until the end of the season. In May 2013 in their second leg play off semi final against Hull, Wilfried scored 2 goals in the second half securing them a place in the final . In the play off final at Wembley Stadium on 27th May 2013, Wilfried scored the penalty that secured their promotion to the Premier League and was named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year.

Wilfried became Sir Alex Ferguson’s last signing to the club before his retirement in summer 2013. Wilfried earned his first major trophy during his debut for Manchester United in the 2013 FA Community Shield game on 11thAugust. Following the 2013/14 season with Manchester United, some of which was spent on loan at Cardiff, he returned to Crystal Palace on loan in August 2014 before re-joining the club on a permanent basis in February 2015.

During the 2015/16 season Wilfried made 34 appearances for Crystal Palace, scoring 2 goals and 1 assist. He helped the team reach the 2016 FA Cup Final, but they lost on the day to Man Utd. His performances did earn him the Crystal Palace Player of the Year award for the first time.

In the penultimate game of the 2016/17 season, Wilfried scored in a 4-0 win against Hull ensuring Premier League safety for Crystal Palace and relegation for Hull. Wilfried again won Crystal Palace’s Player of the Year Award.

In April 2018 he was named the Premier League Player of the Month. At the end of the season he was voted Crystal Palace Player of the Year for the third consecutive time, only the 2nd player in the club’s history to do this.

During the 2018/19 season, Wilfried enjoyed his best ever season, recording 10 goals and 5 assists and became Crystal Palace’s all time leading Premier League goal scorer.

Wilfried’s international football career began in February 2011 when he was called up for England U19’s team, and in Feb 2012 for the England U21’s. Later in 2012 Roy Hodgson called Wilfried up for the senior England squad, where he came on as a sub against Sweden on 14th November. He was the first Crystal Palace player to be called up to the national team from the championship club since 1979. However, in 2016 Wilfried made the decision to change his international allegiance to the Ivory Coast national team ahead of the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations. He made his debut for the Ivory Coast on 8th January 2017 in a friendly against Sweden, and scored his first goal for the country against Uganda in a game 3 days later. The Ivory Coast were eliminated form the tournament at the group stage. In the 2019 African Cup of Nations in Egypt, he scored twice in their win against Namibia, but they exited the tournament at the quarter final stage