Will Wilfried Zaha be the answer for Charlotte FC?

CHARLOTTE FC

Charlotte FC announced Wednesday the signing of forward Wilfried Zaha to a Designated Player contract. Zaha, 32, spent 10 seasons with Crystal Palace of the Premier League, where he scored 90 goals and tallied 52 assists over 458 appearances.

In the year prior to their on-field debut in 2022, the closest Charlotte FC got to a big-name signing was defender Christian Fuchs. Though many might not have known the name of the Austrian national team captain, fans of the game were familiar with the English Premier League title he won with Leicester City in 2015.

They’ve gone back to the EPL for what is now, with all respect to Karol Swiderski, Liel Abada, and Pep Biel, the biggest splash signing to date. Though technically with the Turkish superclub Galatasaray now on loan to the French side Lyon, Wilfried Zaha lit it up for a decade at Crystal Palace as a dynamic player, and proven goal creator on the world’s most competitive club stage.

Charlotte announced Zaha’s signing on Wednesday. He will occupy a Designated Player spot and international roster slot on the club’s 2025 roster.

A scorer of 90 goals and provider of 52 assists over 458 appearances for Crystal Palace, Zaha, 32, will be the most accomplished player to join the Crown. He was born in Cote d'Ivoire but moved to England at age 4. After representing England 15 times on the junior level, and twice on the senior team, he elected to switch to the country of his birth prior to the 2017 Africa Cup of Nations tournament. He has scored four goals in 33 appearances for the national team.

Zaha joined Galatasaray in 2023 and scored nine goals in 30 appearances in the Turkish Süper Lig with three assists. He also played in six UEFA Champions League matches with a goal and an assist. He’s primarily a right-footed winger who likes to play on the left so he’s cutting in on his shooting leg.

Zaha said he wants to be happy, but with diminished playing time at Galatasaray, then Lyon, left him anything but. A change was needed.

In his last three seasons (2020-23) at Palace, Zaha scored 33 goals with 7 assists across all competitions (96). He was a teammate of DC United’s Christian Benteke, who was MLS’s leading scorer last year with 23 goals in 30 regular season matches.

When asked about playing in America, Benteke told his friend, “It's competitive, the life's enjoyable.”

Wilfried Zaha didn't consider Major League Soccer as a destination, but diminished playing time in Europe and conversations with Charlotte FC captain Ashley Westwood and coach Dean Smith convinced him to give it a try. "When I embark on a journey, it's just for me, like the type of person I am," he said.

“So that's all you need to hear,” Zaha said in a Monday press call. And obviously he's a good player here. He's enjoying his life as well. So yeah, why not?”

Zaha admitted he didn’t know much else about America, though he used to vacation in Miami every summer in his mid-20s. He didn’t even know that Fuchs, who he was familiar with in England, was in Charlotte until they ran into each other in the club cafeteria.

Playing in MLS wasn’t an option until it was. After a good start in Turkey, Zaha’s playing time waned and he was loaned to Lyon, where he played in four games.

“The opportunity arose,” he said, “and it was whether I was interested in going to the MLS. And I just thought, why not?”

Zaha is a risk taker on the pitch, and off it as well.

“To be honest, I never really thought nothing of it. When I embark on a journey, it's just for me, like the type of person I am,” he said. “I don't tend to care what other people think of what I'm going to do. So, if I've put in my mind, I want to go to the MLS and try something new. That's not something new to me.

“Before, I played in the Premier League for 10 years. Then I decided I wanted to go to Turkey. I wanted to try something different. Everyone was like, ‘Oh my God, why would you do such a thing?’ But it's my life. In the end, it's what I want to do. It’s like I just made the decision. I want to come to the MLS and see where the journey takes me. And I did it.”

Zaha’s decision was made easier after talking with Charlotte FC coach Dean Smith and captain Ashley Westwood, who he knew from his EPL days.

“I had conversations with Dean, which did make a difference because he’d seen me play numerous times,” Zaha said. “I played against his teams numerous times, and he's very down to earth, so we had proper conversations with which did help.

“And Westie, we played against each other many times and I see what he’s capable of. He knows what I’m capable of. So, us coming together, it just makes a lot of sense. We'd work well together.”

Zaha’s also a family man with a wife and kids so the family-friendly environment of Charlotte was also a plus. Mostly, he’s an athlete eager to get his mojo back.

“I'm 32. I've had both sides. I've gone from (being the focus) at Crystal Palace to not playing at all at Gala, and then not playing in Lyon, and it’s a thing where I don't let it break me mentally, because I know the player I am. The love I've had for me being here for a couple of days, from the players, from the staff, everything. It makes me feel like this is a better journey for me, and more respect.”

Charlotte general manager Zoran Krneta described Zaha as a man of character, a fantastic professional, a humble and hard-working superstar who will quite probably be one of the best players in MLS this year. “And he's now hungry,” Krneta said, “more hungry than I have seen any of the players coming to Charlotte because he hasn’t been playing in a long time.”

Zaha’s words are those that Krneta, Smith, the staff, his teammates, and fans want to hear.

“I feel like if I see myself as a top player, and if I'm going to carry myself as a top player, then I need to prove that constant in football,” he said. “You score one weekend, then the next week, and expecting more, so I've got that into my head that if I'm going to go around and say I'm a good player and this and that, then I gotta prove it constantly. I don't mind the pressure at all. I feel like I thrive from the from the pressure.

“I'm very motivated. I just need to get back on the pitch. That's it really. I know what I can do, because the reality is, I don't look elsewhere for confidence. I look for confidence in myself. So I've gone through a difficult period, but those things are things that's helped me become who I am now. So now in Charlotte, once I get the opportunity to get back on the field, I just want to show what I can do.”

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