Crystal Palace star Eze reveals he was scouted by Chelsea before deciding to join Arsenal

Speaking about his football journey, Crystal Palace star Eberechi Eze revealed that he was on the radar of several London clubs before joining Arsenal's youth team.

The former England U21 international of Nigerian descent, who is deeply religious, was scouted by Arsenal's London rivals, Chelsea. 

Now an established player at Crystal Palace, it was a tough journey for Eze to get to the top of the English football pyramid, with the attacking midfielder revealing that he was released by several teams whilst still a teenager. 

Eze was one of Palace's top performers in his maiden season in the Premier League, but suffered an Achilles injury in May 2021, which saw his dreams of representing England at the 2020 European Championship shattered. 

The 2017 Super Eagles invitee remained focused and positive during his spell on the sidelines, and was able to bounce back from his injury. 

Speaking to Baller Talk's Femi Ilesanmi, Eze said : "I started at a Sunday League team, I was there for maybe half a year before getting scouted by a few teams like Arsenal, Chelsea, more London-based teams.

"I decided to go to Arsenal, was there for maybe five years, played there, then got released, went to Fulham for two and a half years or so.  Got released from there, went to Reading for half a year, got released from there, then went to Millwall for my scholar so I was there for two years then got released from there.

"I went on trial to a few teams afterwards, went to Sunderland, went to Bristol City, didn't get in and then thanks be to God I got signed by QPR, they gave me a year contract, worked for maybe three or four months, got offered a new contract.

"From there I started to grow, started to get better, improve, played first team football and from there got a move to Crystal Palace, and that's where I am now."

Uncertainty over the international future of Eze continues to dominate the headlines in Nigeria, though he is provisionally cap-tied to his country of birth, England. 

As previously reported by allnigeriasoccer.com, the 24-year-old held confidential talks with Amaju Pinnick ahead of the Super Eagles' World Cup playoff against Ghana and gave the former Nigerian Federation boss his word that he would consider playing for the three-time African champions if they qualified for the tournament in Qatar. 

Ifeanyi Emmanuel 

Photo Credit : cpfc.co.uk

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