“I grew up in Sevran so I’m used to insults,” reflected Jean-Philippe Mateta. “There, insults are like saying hello. When you play neighbourhood football with the grown-ups, they insult you, put pressure on you. If you don’t play well, you get hit, so you’re scared. In Ajaccio, I knew they couldn’t touch me.”
It is approaching three years since Crystal Palace’s new striker was racially abused by supporters during the Ligue 2 play-off final in Corsica. Mateta’s penalty in extra-time had given Le Havre the lead and his celebration – pushing his ears forward with his hands in the direction of the stands – provoked a brawl that led to three red cards, including one for the player from one of Paris’s toughest banlieues.
“They called me dirty black, they insulted my family,” Mateta told the French magazine So Foot in a February 2019 interview. “I was sad, I was angry. But if I can reset that goal 10,000 times, I would do the same celebration 10,000 times.”
Mateta returned to his parent club Lyon after Le Havre were beaten on penalties by Ajaccio, having scored 20 goals on loan. But following a request for guarantees over playing time at one of Ligue 1’s biggest clubs, he surprised everyone by opting to join Mainz for a club record €10m. Guided by his father Philippe – a former professional from DR Congo who played in Belgium but was forced to retire at a young age due to injury – Mateta hasn’t looked back.
He scored 14 goals in his debut Bundesliga season and helped France qualify for the Olympics for the first time since 1996, and even a knee injury that saw him miss the first half of last season did not dissuade Palace from signing the 23-year-old on an 18-month loan in January, with an option to make his move permanent for about £15m.
An unused substitute in the wins over Newcastle and Wolves, Mateta finally got his first taste of English football in Monday’s defeat by Leeds. He struggled to make an impact at Elland Road but his former coach at the Championnat National 3 side La Jeanne d’Arc de Drancy (known as JA Drancy) is sure better will come.
“He is someone who is very motivated to succeed and I’m sure he will prove himself in the Premier League,” says Saloum Coulibaly. “I think the Premier League is perfect for him. The fact that he has already played in Germany is a good thing because it is a similar style to England that should suit him well. Jean-Philippe is very strong and likes the physical challenge but I would say he is a better player with his feet than with [his] head. For such a tall player, he has some great skill with the ball and most importantly knows how to score goals.”
Mateta, the youngest of seven siblings, started at his local side Sevran – a town home to some of France’s most successful rappers including Da Uzi and Kaaris – but left at 14 to join Drancy. It was an 8km bus ride through Paris’s usually gridlocked northern suburbs to reach the training ground but Coulibaly remembers the gangly teenager showing great promise in a set-up that has also produced Raphaël Guerreiro of Borussia Dortmund and Monaco’s Youssouf Fofana.
“Jean-Philippe was a player who had faced difficulties at his previous club,” he says. “The year before he didn’t play all the time and you could see straight away he had a lot of ability. I remember being very impressed because he was very tall, fast and good with his feet and in the air. But it was just a matter of trying to build up his confidence. When that returned, he exploded. By the middle of the season Jean-Philippe already had 20 goals and he was promoted to the higher age group.”
Two years later, he joined Châteauroux in France’s third tier before moving to Lyon for an initial €2m, with Châteauroux also receiving a large sell-on fee when he joined Mainz. Mateta has said Palace’s determination to sign him after several months of negotiations persuaded him to choose London over a return to Ligue 1, where he has made only two appearances, with Marseille.
“Roy Hodgson told me he was following me even before my injury,” he said. “I met with the president and the investors, and they confirmed to me that I had been in their sights for a few years. I kind of felt like I came through the front door.”
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Mateta keeps a diary where he “writes down everything that happens in my life and everything that I plan to do”, but stops short of running his own social media accounts. “I pay a guy to say everything I need to say on Twitter for me. I want to avoid networks because I know that reading everything that is said about me will have no positive effect.”
To Coulibaly, that sounds just like the player he first met almost 10 years ago. “We are still in contact from time to time, usually on the phone these days,” he says. “He is really someone who remembers where he comes from, is always smiling and has remained humble. I’m truly proud of what he has achieved. When he arrived at Drancy he was a young man who needed help and it’s fantastic that we were able to give him that.”
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