Linked-up: How Palace’s generation of local talent grew up connected
There is less than four years separating Eberechi Eze and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, two talented young Palace players with England youth experience who grew up barely five miles apart.
There is less than four years separating Eberechi Eze and Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, two talented young Palace players with England youth experience who grew up barely five miles apart.
In fact, there were just four stops on the tube between Eze and Rak-Sakyi – a rare convenience only noteworthy in south London – during the pair’s upbringing.
But between those four years sit six other Palace players with professional experience, each at slightly different career stages but all connected. Michael Olise, for example, grew up on the other side of London to Eze, but says the two played together when they were younger.
Seven of the eight overall grew up within London, with the furthest, Tyrick Mitchell, raised less than 20 miles from Selhurst Park.
The full group, Eze, Rak-Sakyi, Mitchell, Conor Gallagher, Marc Guéhi, Nya Kirby, Nathan Ferguson and Michael Olise, have a range of connections, from being national teammates to simply living nearby, and crossing paths at early stages.
Over time, Palace have knitted the group together to add to their already strong local base. Now, alongside Nathaniel Clyne and Wilfried Zaha, who grew up in Brixton and Thornton Heath respectively, there is a strong group of teammates with London roots or pre-existing relationships.
Here’s a look at the density of London talent Palace have acquired, and how some of the lads know one another well.
Raised: Epsom, 10 miles from Selhurst
Connected with: Guéhi (teammates at Chelsea, Swansea City and England Under-17s onward), Eze (England Under-20s onward), Ferguson (England Under-18s onward), Kirby (England, winning the U17 World Cup together in 2017), Olise (Chelsea Academy).
Granted, it might be poetic licence to lump Epsom into London, but it has a Kingston postcode and is closer to the capital than Vicarage Road, so we’ll claim it.
“It seems like we can’t leave each other alone!” Gallagher has joked of Guéhi before. “We grew up through the Academy at Chelsea, we were at Swansea together and now here, so we’re like best mates. I’m really happy he’s here.
“Playing for your country is an honour and we played there together throughout the [England] age groups from Under-17s to Under-21s, so it’s been a great journey. It’s just the start, really.”
Raised: Lewisham, seven miles from Selhurst Park
Connected with: Kirby (England, winning the U17 World Cup together in 2017), Eze (England Under-21s), Rak-Sakyi (Chelsea Academy) and Olise (Chelsea Academy, and as opponents growing up)
Guéhi is an authentic south Londoner, raised and starting his career in two of the club’s boroughs. The centre-back was born in Abidjan, Ivory Coast, the same city as Wilfried Zaha, but grew up mostly in Lewisham.
He joined Bromley-based Cray Wanderers aged six, and told Palace TV upon signing: “When you’re from south London, it’s really exciting. You know what the feel’s about, what the fans are about and you have that real connection.”
Raised: Southwark, eight miles from Selhurst Park
Connected with: Marc Guéhi (Chelsea Academy) and Michael Olise (Chelsea Academy, playing infrequently for the same group)
Rak-Sakyi, the youngest in this group, is progressing with the club’s Under-23s, but has begun to earn experience of professional football in recent months, making his senior debut in August 2021.
Born in Southwark, he grew up in the Chelsea Academy underneath players like Guéhi, Olise and Gallagher.
Raised: Hayes, 20 miles from Selhurst Park
Connected with: Eze (Olise says they knew one another through friends while growing up) and Rak-Sakyi (Chelsea Academy)
Olise has been erroneously listed as growing up in Hammersmith, but was raised in Hayes, near Heathrow, and born in White City. He joined Hayes and Yeading around the age of six, before joining the Chelsea Academy, where he played on occasion with Rak-Sakyi, 10 months his junior.
Raised: Greenwich, eight-and-a-half miles from Selhurst Park
Connected with: Guéhi (England Under-21s), Gallagher (England Under-20s onward) and Olise (Olise says he knew Eze through friends while growing up)
Eze came slightly later to the England party but made a swift impact upon joining an incredibly talented generation of Young Lions.
He started alongside the likes of Aaron Ramsdale, Reece James, Eddie Nketiah and Joe Willock on his England Under-20s debut, and swiftly linked up with Guéhi and Gallagher.
Raised: Brent, 20 miles from Selhurst
Coming from the same north-west corner as Olise, Mitchell’s career has overlapped less with his teammates than some at Palace, with the Academy graduate joining the club after Brentford’s Academy closed in 2016.
He grew up on a road just behind Harrow & Wealdstone station, playing for local side Pinner Albion, whose logo, incidentally, is an eagle atop a ball. A sign of things to follow.
