It didn’t take Reading long to appreciate that they were on to something. Michael Olise had been called into the club’s Under-18 side, despite being just 16. And one touch was enough to persuade Mikele Leigertwood, the Royals’ academy coach, that the teenager wouldn’t be in the Reading youth set-up for long.
“It was coming to the end of the season and we heard there was a kid who had been released by a couple of clubs,” he says.
“We played him as a defensive midfielder. First thing he did was get the ball from the goalkeeper. He was under pressure but just chipped it first time over the centre-forward to the opposite centre-half with his weaker foot. I was just thinking, ‘wow, who is this kid?’”
The air of mystery has evaporated since but stopping him is just as tough now as it was then.
Olise had spent time at Arsenal, Chelsea and Manchester City early in his career, but it wasn’t until he arrived at Reading that his trajectory took off.
“He got a scholarship and he just went from strength to strength,” Leigertwood says.
“He was a lovely kid and loved his football. But he wanted to be challenged. Sometimes he would get frustrated when he wasn’t being challenged enough. He wouldn’t mess around, he would just get upset.
”He could play anywhere, he would play in midfield, on the wing, as a 10. But ultimately, we just wanted Michael on the ball. He was that kid who could pick the ball up from anywhere, dribble through a side and create great moments. He just jumped levels – he went from [under] 18s to 21s to first team in about 18 months.”
He then became Patrick Vieira’s first signing at Crystal Palace in July 2021, shortly after being named the EFL Young Player of the Year. Olise – who has played youth football for France but is also eligible to play for England, Algeria and Nigeria – hasn’t looked back.
And his performances this season have been extraordinary. And one former Palace star believes he could be the best thing to come out of Selhurst Park since a certain striker-turned-pundit.
“At the moment, I’d put him up there with Ian Wright and probably Wilfried Zaha too – and he’s young enough to surpass them both,” Geoff Thomas says.
“Wrighty played out wide early in his career but soon became quite physical in his style of play. Olise has a bigger stature, but his balance is incredible, he just glides past players.
“I was at the Wolves game on Saturday, and he was just different class. His control, wow. He’s a throwback in a lot of ways. I feel like he’s taking us back to the days when wingers were the players that got people out of their seats.”
Together with Eberechi Eze, he has tormented some of the best defenders in the Premier League this season. And the questions both players are posing under Oliver Glasner have left teams floundering in their pursuit of answers.
“The stats with Olise are really telling – when he plays we win more games and when they [Eze and Olise] both play then everything goes into overdrive,” says Palace season ticket-holder, David Sturges.
“When we played Liverpool [a 1-0 Palace win last month], and they were both on the pitch we were so on top. As soon as they went off we didn’t have another shot on goal.”
The fear haunting every Palace fan is that both Olise and Eze could be persuaded that their future lies elsewhere this summer.
For Leigertwood, though, regardless of what happens next, Olise has shown that rejection as a youngster doesn’t need to have a terminal impact on your career.
“People forget how mentally strong you have to be to bounce back from being released,” he says.
“You need resilience, you need mental strength. Being a very good footballer isn’t enough. Eze has been through the same thing. They’ve both given a lot of young footballers a lot of hope.
“Michael plays the same way now as he did when he first came to us. That’s why people enjoy watching him so much. You always get the feeling something amazing is about to happen.”