Eberechi Eze is aiming to lead Crystal Palace to FA Cup triumph—but his journey to becoming a professional footballer nearly ended before it began. As a youth, the England international was released by several clubs including Arsenal, Fulham, Millwall, and Sunderland, and by the age of 20, he had grown accustomed to rejection.
Today, Eze is a key Premier League player with a £67 million release clause in his Palace contract. On Saturday, he’ll walk out at Wembley for the FA Cup final, fuelled by the setbacks that once threatened his dream.
Arsenal was the first club to release Eze, a moment that deeply affected him. He was just 13 when it happened, and in a 2020 interview with the Independent, he recalled, “I remember crying in my room for a solid week. My mum kept saying it would be okay, but I couldn’t move past it.”
He later joined Fulham and began enjoying football again, but an emotional encounter with Arsenal in a youth match reignited painful memories. “When I went to shake the academy manager’s hand, I started tearing up. Everything came flooding back,” he said.
After further disappointment at Fulham and Millwall—where he was denied a pro contract after a two-year scholarship—Eze failed to earn a deal during a trial at Sunderland and even considered leaving football to work part-time at Tesco.
That changed when Queens Park Rangers offered him an opportunity. Eze seized it, making his debut in January 2017, and hasn’t looked back since.
Now 26, Eze is the creative heartbeat of Palace’s attack as they prepare to face Manchester City in the final. Despite his rise, he hasn’t forgotten the pain of his early rejections.
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