Crystal Palace midfielder Wilfried Zaha has swapped his international allegiance from England to Ivory Coast.
Zaha hasn’t added to his two England caps since featuring against Scotland in August 2013 and the Palace ace hasn’t really been on the edge of any England squads since.
The 24-year-old, who was born in Ivory Coast before moving to England when he was four, is even below Palace teammate Andros Townsend in the pecking order for international recognition with the Three Lions.
However, under current Fifa rules, Zaha has been able to switch his international allegiance as both of his caps with England were in earned in non-competitive matches.
“The Ivorian-English attacking midfielder Wilfried Zaha has chosen to play for the Elephants, under the colours of the Ivory Coast, his country of origin. The player has sent, on this Sunday November 27 2016, correspondence to Fifa to change his national team,” a statement read by the Ivorian Football Federation (FIF), via Sky Sports.
“Approached several weeks ago by the Federation Ivorienne de Football (FIF), Wilfried Zaha has made his choice this Sunday in London. In the presence of his father, of Augustin Sidy Diallo (president of the FIF) and Michel Dussuyer (Elephants head coach), he signed at the bottom of the demand to change his sporting nationality addressed to FIFA.
“Born on November 10 in Abidjan, Wilfried Zaha grew up in England, the country for which he made two appearances in friendly matches. However, the Crystal Palace player remains eligible to play for the Ivory Coast.”
It now means that Zaha is eligbile to play for Ivory Coast in the Africa Cup of Nations, which starts on January 14 and runs for almost a month. Palace are only above the bottom three on goal difference and losing their star performer would be a huge blow to their chances of survival.
Zaha has reserved his best performances in the Premier League this season away from home, where five of the seven goals he has directly contributed to have come (two goals, three assists on the road). In fact, only Alexis Sanchez (8.40) has garnered a higher WhoScored rating than Zaha (8.09) away from home in the Premier League this season.
For more stats on Wilfried Zaha, click here to visit his WhoScored player page
