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By Martin Graham | 14th Mar 2023
Crystal Palace star Wilfried Zaha has been earmarked as the next big signing for the Saudi Pro League according to recent reports.
The 30-year-old Ivory Coast international is at the end of his contract with the Premier League side and has rebuffed all attempts to get him to sign an extension to date. If this holds up until the end of the season when his contract runs up, he will be ending a 19-year affiliation with the London-based side.
Zaha joined Palace in 2004 as a 10-year-old and rose through the ranks. He became one of the most talented youngsters in England under the tutelage of the Palace academy coaches and was co-opted into the Three Lions youth sides. He was touted as a future England star but after only two games with the senior side and no call ups for the four years that followed, he switched allegiances back to the country of his birth, Ivory Coast.
In between that time, he had stints at Manchester United and. Cardiff City, but in 2015, he returned fully to Palace, where it all began, and he has been there ever since.
He came to be disillusioned with the side’s seeming lack of progress and tried to leave on a number of occasions. Now, his path to exiting the club has become clearer but the club is still fighting to keep him because he is their best and most valuable player.
They are said to have presented him with a new contract that will see him earn £200,000-a-week to make him their highest-paid player ever, but reports indicate that Zaha is officially done with Palace and weighing his options.
A few clubs in the Premier League, including Arsenal, have been in contact with the winger but a new, more financially threatening party has entered the mix.
That party is Al-Ittihad, one of Al-Nassr’s rivals in the Saudi Pro League.
The Jeddah-based club is looking to bring in Zaha to compete with Al-Nassr who strengthened their squad with Cristiano Ronaldo in late December. Al-Ittihad is offering the Ivory Coast international £9 million-a-year to move across the world to strengthen their side.
Eagles’ manager Patrick Vieira is hoping the management can keep him but has also praised him for his professionalism. However, things will have to change on the pitch for the side that is 12th on the log for them to stand a chance in keeping him.
Martin Graham is an MFF sports writer
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