“If I had not made it I would have gone back to Sunday football, for sure. I loved it.”
Zaha, brought up literally around the corner from Selhurst Park after his family moved to Britain from the Ivory Coast when he was four, knows what it is like to be rejected.
“When I was playing at Under-18 level at Palace there was a coach who told me I was not good enough,” he said. “I used to go home and cry. My mum didn’t understand what was going on.
“I was not getting games in the league. But then the FA Youth Cup came along and I got my chance. That was my breakthrough.
“You can’t let it get you down. I have had that in my career. I thought, there was no way I was going to take that.”
As for Palace, he added: “We are definitely looking steady as a team right now. The team has got experience all over. A player like Gary Cahill coming in has really helped. He has this steadiness, he knows how to manage a game.
“My ambition is to win trophies. I want to go to the World Cup finals with my country. That is a dream.
