A through ball from Michael Olise split open the Egypt defence and Jean-Philippe Mateta knew immediately what needed to be done.
Instinctively, the striker opened up his body, deceiving the goalkeeper in the process, and, as he fell to the ground, lifted the ball into the top left corner of the net. France, having struggled against determined opponents, were level late on in Monday’s semi-final of the Olympic Games back on Mateta’s old stomping ground in Lyon.
But Mateta was not done yet.
In extra time, the forward, who had headed against the crossbar earlier in the game, found himself perfectly placed to nod home a second from close range. France ended up prevailing 3-1, with Mateta at the forefront of their post-match celebrations.
Mateta lifts France’s equaliser over Hamza Alaa (Koji Watanabe/Getty Images)
Things could not be much better for the 27-year-old right now.
Admittedly he had struggled to make an impact in France’s opening two group games at the tournament on home soil. But manager Thierry Henry handed him the captain’s armband against New Zealand in their final pool fixture and, as if inspired by the extra responsibility, he duly burst into life, opening the scoring after 19 minutes. He has not looked back since.
That goal was the catalyst for a resumption of the impressive form he had carried into the tournament from the end of the Premier League season. He scored the only goal of that feisty game against Argentina, nodding in an Olise corner early on, before that timely brace against Egypt in the semi-final.
On Friday he will line up alongside Olise, his former Crystal Palace team-mate who joined Bayern Munich earlier in the summer, in the hope of winning an Olympic gold medal.
That would be deserved reward for a forward who has scored 18 goals in his last 18 games across all competitions for club and country. Where he was recently a player with no real reputation of note in his native France — and only a fringe player at Palace — now the clamour is for him to lead the line for Didier Deschamps’ senior team while clubs in European competition alerted to his eye-catching progress.
His has been a remarkable transformation.
GO DEEPER
Jean-Philippe Mateta: ‘I can be one of the best goalscorers in the Premier League’
This has been a hectic summer for Mateta.
The season concluded with 13 goals from 15 games, including at least one in seven consecutive home Premier League games, and Palace’s second-ever Premier League hat-trick in a 5-0 demolition of Aston Villa on the final afternoon. The striker would have been justified in departing for his summer holidays to celebrate the most impressive campaign of his senior career, but Mateta had no intention on resting on his laurels.
He had set his heart on maintaining those standards, both in the Premier League and within France’s national setup, and wanted to ensure he was in the best possible condition to hit the ground running whatever came next.
Palace manager Oliver Glasner congratulates Mateta on his hat-trick against Villa (Jacques Feeney/Offside/Offside via Getty Images)
So rather than booking a beach holiday and settling in for some deserved R&R, Mateta travelled to Brazil.
He and his girlfriend had fallen in love with Rio de Janeiro on a trip there in the summer of 2023 but, having been down the tourist route, this time the pair rented an AirBnB in the Vidigal favela overlooking Ipanema beach and Mateta went to work.
He trained five days a week at Clube Ginastico Portugues in Recreio dos Bandeirantes, just to the west of Rio. He worked on sprinting and finishing with Vitinho, an attacker at Saudi Pro League side Al-Ettifaq, and the Lorient right-back Igor Silva, under the watchful eye of Rafael Winicki, a fitness coach previously at Flamengo. The forward was also accompanied to Brazil by his own chef, who doubled up as a running partner, to ensure his diet was right for when the football resumed.
In his free time, he was among a crowd of 65,000 at the Maracana as Vasco da Gama were beaten 6-1 by Flamengo, and played foot volley with the locals on Leblon beach.
Ideally, he would have made Didier Deschamps’ Euro 2024 squad. That dream, though, had dashed with the squad announcement in mid-May. Instead, his phone lit up with text messages of congratulations after Henry confirmed the striker’s inclusion as one of three over-23 players in France’s Olympic squad.
On June 16, a month after the Premier League season had concluded, Mateta joined up with the squad for a pre-Olympic training camp at the national team’s base in Clairefontaine. He then returned to London to undergo pre-season testing with Palace on July 7 before making his way back to France for the Olympics proper five days later.
He will go into Friday’s final with four goals to his name at the tournament, trailing Morocco’s Soufiane Rahimi by two in the race to be top scorer.
All that hard work has paid off.
Mateta is congratulated by Henry after putting France ahead against Egypt (Claudio Villa/Getty Images)
The uncertainty centres on what happens next.
In his absence from Palace, Mateta has seen Odsonne Edouard push for more involvement as the principal striker in Oliver Glasner’s forward line. Edouard has played consistently, even if he has only scored twice in pre-season to date — in a 6-3 win over Crawley Town and, last Sunday, a 3-1 victory over West Ham United in Tampa, Florida on tour in the United States.
Mateta has not been involved in the pre-season programme but, whatever Friday’s result, he will return to Palace’s training ground next Wednesday alongside Colombia’s Daniel Munoz and Jefferson Lerma, and England’s Eberechi Eze and Marc Guehi — the quartet of international players who enjoyed game time at the Copa America and Euro 2024.
Glasner is eager for the striker to start in the club’s opening Premier League game of the season against Brentford four days later.
His belated return makes it more challenging for Glasner to prepare his side. “That they can play such a tournament is great for them personally, but the manager’s heart is bleeding because we want our players,” said the manager about losing players to international duty over the summer.
But a lack of significant rest and preparation is offset against the momentum of scoring goals, high-riding confidence and success in the Olympics.
Fitness will not be a problem. Neither will assimilation back into the group. Mateta knows his team-mates, while Glasner’s preferred system is familiar by now. The only difference, albeit a potentially significant one, is the absence of Olise.
The pair have combined to great effect in their home country, just as they did in flashes with Palace last season when Olise created six chances for Mateta, two of which were converted. Eze was actually more directly influential, with three assists and 11 chances created. But that does not tell the full story. There is no doubt that Olise’s departure to Bayern will make things more difficult for Mateta.
Mateta and Olise have excelled together with Palace and France (Vince Mignott/MB Media/Getty Images)
Yet the real intrigue surrounds his contractual situation.
Talks over a possible new deal at Palace have rumbled on for some time. But they have yet to conclude with an agreement and Mateta has chosen to walk away, at least for the time being, from negotiations with the two parties significantly apart. In the meantime, various clubs have made initial enquiries over his potential availability.
With two years remaining on his existing deal and an option for a further year in the club’s favour, which would take him beyond his 30th birthday, Mateta is not in a strong negotiating position despite his form and the interest from abroad.
A new deal, though, would be a reward for his contribution to Palace’s race up the Premier League table under Glasner to achieve last season’s 10th-place finish. It is difficult to see Palace considering a sale this summer given their lack of alternative options up front.
Mateta again for @equipedefrance 👏#CPFC // #OlympicGames pic.twitter.com/aPTAOwtROG
— Crystal Palace F.C. (@CPFC) August 5, 2024
In the short term, they will benefit from Mateta’s ambition. With Olivier Giroud having retired from international football, the man spearheading France’s Olympic challenge is targeting a place in Deschamps’ senior squad for their Nations League fixtures against Italy and Belgium in September. Given the impact he has made at Paris 2024, there is a groundswell of support behind his candidacy.
The French public have finally woken up to the talents of a player whose club career in his homeland amounted to unremarkable stints at Chateauroux, on the fringes at Lyon and on loan at Le Havre. Now, having found form and consistency over last season at Palace, he is a player revived.
A striker on the cusp of Olympic glory.
(Top photo: Juan Manuel Serrano Arce/Getty Images)
