Michael Olise: From Reading to the World Cup
· Yahoo Sports
"He pitched up here after rejection from Chelsea and Man City. Now he's playing for France in the quarter finals of the World Cup and is a potential Ballon d'Or winner."
Michael Olise's rise from the Reading U15 team to global super-stardom hasn't surprised Brendan Flanagan, head of academy recruitment at the club.
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"Michael was a special talent. At the beginning of the under-15 season when he had just come in, he was a unique player, a freak of nature, the sort of player you're trying to find."
Off the back of a season in which Olise recorded 25 goals and 28 assists for Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich, his success at the World Cup was predictable.
His five assists for France equals the record at a World Cup, and now he's looking forward to helping France in their quarter final against Morocco on Thursday evening.
"At a very young age he could do things with a football first teamers couldn't do," says Flanagan.
"He had an ability to see things quicker than anyone else, see a pass splitting defences wide open, and on the ball he could slow it right down when running at a defender, and then drop his shoulder and just accelerate away."
He's notoriously tricky to interview, avoiding the limelight off the field, instead preferring games of chess and solitude.
Brendon Flanagan said Olise was "unique player" even as a teenager [BBC]Coaches and team-mates talk about his resilience and focus, after his early rejection from several Premier League academies.
It all started at Reading, back in August 2016, when Flanagan spotted an opportunity to bring Olise in.
After several years in the academy, in 2019 he made the first of 67 appearances in the Reading senior team. He immediately caught the eye of fans and other players.
"It's a great achievement coming from Reading," says current club striker, Jacob Brown.
"I played against him in the Covid season, when he was breaking into the first team and you could immediately tell he was a very talented player."
His performances earned him a move to Premier League Crystal Palace in 2021, and then three years later he went to Bayern Munich.
With France, Olise stands on the cusp of greatness. He is a big reason why the team are favourites with the bookies to win the final on 19 July.
His old team-mates and coaches at Reading will wish him "bonne chance", but for Morocco's defenders it's likely to be "sacrebleu".
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