Of the five players to have represented both Manchester United and Lyon, Wilfried Zaha is the one to have left by far the least impression on both clubs. He’ll go down as little more than a footnote in their history, or at most the answer to an obscure quiz question. Not that he wasn’t a fine player, it’s just that his best work was performed elsewhere, most notably at Crystal Palace where he’s something of a club legend.
Born in Abidjan, capital of the Ivory Coast, and christened Dazet Wilfried Armel Zaha, he moved with his family to south London at the age of four. One of eight siblings, he joined the academy of local club Crystal Palace and displayed a prodigious talent for football from an early age.
Teenage sensation at Selhurst Park
Having risen through the ranks, his first team debut came as a seventeen-year-old in March 2010. Palace caretaker manager Paul Hart brought Zaha off the bench as a late replacement for Stern John in a 2-1 defeat to Cardiff City in the Championship at Selhurst Park. He didn’t feature again that season, but soon signed his first professional contract and became a regular starter for them during the following campaign.
Wilfried Zaha’s stock continued to rise and he was a key part of their successful promotion challenge in 2012-13 when they finished fifth and won the play-offs to secure a place in the Premier League. Half way through that season, during the January transfer window, Zaha signed for Manchester United for £10 million plus a potential £5 million of add-ons, but was immediately loaned back to Palace for the remainder of the campaign. He had the distinction of becoming Sir Alex Ferguson’s last signing for Manchester United before the legendary manager retired in summer 2013.
By then, Zaha had already been a regular for the England U-19 and U-21 teams for a couple of years and he won his first call-up to the full England national team under Roy Hodgson in November 2012. His debut came in a 4-2 friendly defeat in Sweden, during which Zlatan Ibrahimović scored all four Swedish goals. Zaha was brought off the bench to replace Raheem Sterling for the final five minutes. His only other cap for England came in an August 2013 friendly against Scotland at Wembley. This time he replaced Theo Walcott for the last fifteen minutes of a 2-2 draw.
A frustrating time in Manchester
Zaha’s Manchester United career began with victory in the FA Community Shield under new manager David Moyes. He started on the right side of attack against Wigan Athletic and played the first 61 minutes before being subbed off for Antonio Valencia with United two goals to the good thanks to a pair of Robin Van Persie strikes. It finished 2-0 giving Zaha the first medal of his career.
Moyes handed Zaha a second start in a 4-0 League Cup win over Norwich City at Old Trafford in October 2013 but he had to wait until December to make his Premier League debut as a substitute for Nani in a 1-0 home defeat to Newcastle United. He did also feature briefly in the next game, a 3-0 win against Aston Villa at Villa Park as a late substitute for Wayne Rooney, but that proved to be the sum total of his Manchester United career. Four appearances, two starts and no goals in a total of 167 minutes of playing time.
There had also been three appearances and one goal for the Manchester United U-21 team, but manager David Moyes just didn’t seem to fancy him as a first team player and decided to loan him out to Cardiff City during the January transfer window, a year after he had first put pen to paper on his United deal.
Loan spells at Cardiff and Palace
Manchester United legend Ole Gunnar Solskjær was the Cardiff City manager at the time and they were struggling against relegation at the bottom end of the Premier League. Zaha made 13 appearances for Cardiff but couldn’t ultimately help them avoid the drop as they finished bottom of the table.
Upon his return to Manchester United, Zaha was once again deemed surplus to requirements by new manager Louis Van Gaal. He rejoined Crystal Palace in August 2014, initially on a season long loan, but the deal was made permanent in February 2015 for a fee of £3 million with the potential for a further £6 million in add-ons.
Peak years back at Palace
Zaha immediately flourished back at Selhurst Park and went on to spend the next nine seasons back at his boyhood club as they consolidated their top-flight status. Playing predominantly on the left side of the front line, he was a persistent goal threat and regular provider of assists for his strike partners. His pace and trickery made him a real handful for fullbacks up and down the country.
Chosen as Crystal Palace Player of the Year for three consecutive seasons from 2015-16 to 2017-18, and Premier League Player of the Month for April 2018, he also helped Palace reach the 2016 FA Cup final at Wembley. There they faced his former employers Manchester United and came close to causing an upset, taking the lead in the 78th minute before eventually succumbing 2-1 after extra time.
In total, Wilfried Zaha racked up 458 appearances for Crystal Palace, scoring 90 goals prior to his departure at the end of the 2022-23 season. He had reportedly been a transfer target for several big clubs over the years, but ultimately allowed his contract to run down so he could leave on a free transfer. By now aged thirty, his peak years were perhaps behind him and he didn’t receive a satisfactory offer from a club in any of Europe’s big five leagues.
Turkish delight
In late July 2023, it was announced that Zaha had signed a contract with Turkish Süper Lig side Galatasaray worth a reported €4.35 million a year in wages. He hit the ground running in Turkey, scoring ten goals in all competitions as Galatasaray romped to the title under manager Okan Buruk, amassing an impressive total of 102 points.
They also collected the Turkish Super Cup title with a 3-0 win against Fenerbahçe, so Zaha was finally able to add to his hitherto sparse personal honours list. He also got his first taste of Champions League football that season and even managed to score at Old Trafford in a 3-2 group stage win against Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United.
Textor’s transfer gamble
Despite the apparent success of his season with Galatasaray, Zaha was on the move again the following summer when a surprise loan to Olympique Lyonnais was announced on transfer deadline day. Lyon paid a considerable fee, rumoured to be around €3 million to secure his services for the 2024-25 season.
It was widely seen as something of a vanity transfer that Lyon’s American owner John Textor may have desired in order to put his own stamp on the squad and win over sceptical fans by landing a big name. Textor would have been familiar with Zaha due to his 45% stake in the ownership of Crystal Palace and would have had the necessary contacts to make it happen.
However, the transfer seemed to take manager Pierre Sage by surprise. Lyon were already replete with options in the wide attacking areas but were crying out for reinforcements in central defence or midfield, so the move left the squad feeling a bit unbalanced. Sage didn’t seem to fancy Zaha and wasn’t inclined to disrupt his formation or tactics to accommodate him, so the former Palace man became something of an expensive white elephant on the Lyon bench.
Lesser spotted in Lyon
His Lyon debut came in the UEFA Europa League on the 26th of September 2025 when he came on for Malik Fofana in the 67th minute of a match against Olimpiakos at the Groupama Stadium. Rayan Cherki had just opened the scoring for Lyon and Zaha had an instant impact, laying on an assist for Saïd Benrahma to double the advantage a few minutes later. Lyon ran out 2-0 winners.
Zaha’s first and only start for Lyon came three days later when they travelled to Toulouse in Ligue 1, but this time he was replaced by Fofana in the 53rd minute with the score at 1-1 and Fofana went on to score a late winner. He had to wait until late October for another run out, this time in a Europa League tie against Besiktas. He played the last twenty minutes but couldn’t help overturn a 1-0 deficit. Another short cameo in Ligue 1 followed three days later when he came on for the final few minutes of 2-2 draw against Auxerre, but again couldn’t influence the result.
Moving on to MLS
His final two Lyon appearances came in Ligue 1 victories against Saint-Étienne and Angers in November and December respectively, but they were so fleeting that he was only on the pitch for a total of five minutes across the two games. It was clear that things weren’t working out at Lyon, so they decided to cut their losses and terminate the loan deal when the January transfer window opened.
Zaha’s final Lyon stats of 6 appearances, one start and no goals in a total of 112 minutes of playing time were eerily similar to his output at Manchester United all those years ago. Despite his obvious talent, some managers just seem reluctant to deploy him. Maybe they view him as something of a luxury player.
Galatasaray arranged a further loan, this time to Charlotte FC in America’s MLS where so far he’s been playing ninety minutes every week and has two goals from six appearances. There’s an option to extend the loan until June 2026 so it looks as though he may not be returning to Turkey.
A second chance at international football
Finally, it should be noted that Wilfried Zaha’s international career didn’t end with those two caps that he earned for England in 2012 and 2013. In late 2016, having been repeatedly overlooked for England squads, he decided to switch his international allegiance to the Ivory Coast. He made his debut for The Elephants in a 2-1 friendly win against Sweden in Abu Dhabi in January 2017 under manager Michel Dussuyer.
Zaha has gone on to amass over thirty appearances for the Ivory Coast, scoring four goals, and has appeared at the Africa Cup of Nations finals on three occasions: in 2017 in Gabon, in 2019 in Egypt where they made the quarter-finals, and in 2021 in Cameroon. (The 2021 finals actually took place in January 2022).