Jean-Philippe Mateta said that Wilfried Zaha laughed at his dream of playing for the France national team back when Mateta was not even starting regularly for Crystal Palace, using it as an example of people not believing in him.

What Mateta Actually Said

  • Mateta described a conversation from their Crystal Palace days where he told teammates, including Zaha, that his dream was to play for France.
  • He claimed Zaha and others joked about the idea, essentially implying it was unrealistic while he was not even playing regularly for Palace.
  • Mateta presented this story later as proof that he had “proved people wrong” by eventually getting a France call-up.

How Zaha Responded

  • Zaha went on social media saying he needed to “clear up this Mateta situation” and called Mateta’s version of events “disgusting.”
  • He insisted he never bullied Mateta or told him he would not make it, saying they were a group of around 10 players joking together about how hard it would be to get into a France squad featuring stars like Karim Benzema.
  • Zaha questioned why Mateta singled out his name from that group and suggested it was because Zaha is the biggest name, adding that he had even publicly congratulated Mateta on his France call-up.

How It Blew Up Online

  • The story turned into a talking point on football forums and social media, with fans debating whether Mateta’s comments were a harmless “prove them wrong” anecdote or an unnecessary public dig at a former teammate.
  • Some observers felt Mateta was just using Zaha’s name to add drama to the story, while others argued Zaha took what was meant as light banter too personally.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.