In this month of October 2025, Jean-Philippe Mateta made his big debut for the France A team. The Crystal Palace scorer returned to this great news a few days ago in the columns of The Team. “At the beginning, when I wasn't playing, I was talking in the locker room of the France team, and I had teammates like Wilfried Zaha laughing. They told me I was crazy to think about the selection. Except that the version given by the former OL player is not faithful to reality according to Zaha, who played alongside him with the Eagles. On his social networks, the Ivorian, who currently plays in Charlotte, paid Mateta. His words are relayed by the Daily Mail.
“I'm sorry, but my head is in a funk. I have to clarify this situation with Mateta because he doesn't want to and it just shows me that… see the times when I was playing at Crystal Palace and all these people were looking at me and it's clear they weren't happy for me. I've never made anyone feel like shit. Never. Everyone knows me, the only time on a field is when I'm passionate and all that, but I've never intimidated anyone or said someone wouldn't make it or wouldn't make it at all or anything like that. The conversation (with Mateta, editor's note) was about his chances of playing for the France team, at the time when he was not playing for Palace. There were ten players he talked about it with. Among friends, we laughed about it, but we joked that it would be difficult, especially with Benzema and all these different players in these positions. But we never said, “You’ll never make it.” So wouldn't you be shocked, especially with all the football banter between friends, if this person asked this to 10 people and acted like it was some sort of jaine on my part? I swear, 10 Crystal Palace players were there when this conversation took place. Why would he say my name when there were 10 people? Is it simply because Zaha is the best known? I don't understand. It's disgusting. I've never hated anyone. Now I get messages: “oh, you’re not making fun of Mateta anymore.” I don't really care. Bravo to him. I even congratulated him publicly on his Instagram. So when we hear this story come out, it's a bit like “what the hell?” You hated me all this time for you to come out with this story (…) It’s really disgusting, man. That’s why I don’t have any footballer friends, that’s why I stay discreet, because how can I do that?” Zaha is more excited than ever.
