Does Matheus Franca Have A Future At Crystal Palace?
Matheus França came to Crystal Palace in 2023 as an exciting 19-year-old Brazilian, one of only five to sign for the Eagles, and the first outfielder since André Moritz in Palace’s 2012-13 promotion season. Inspired and entranced by his exotic appeal, Palace fans took to him instantly, giving him a song, fittingly set to Dean Martin’s “Sway”, and waited anxiously to see their starboy shine on the pitch. Much to our chagrin, Palace fans are still waiting to see anything more than a glimmer. França has since gone back to Brazil on loan, and now that he has returned, many are left wondering if Matheus França can still become the player we dreamed he’d be.
DOES OUR DREAM LIVE ON?
No, at least not the dream we had at the start. We can still dream that he’ll live up to all the hype he had as an exciting young talent three years ago, whose signing announcement filled us with dreams of joga bonito at Selhurst for years to come. We can still live in the imagination of whoever wrote that Ballon D’or clause into his contract. We can dream, but perhaps it’s time to shift the goal posts.
As an American, I’ve been asked if I believe in miracles plenty, and I certainly do. It’s precisely because I believe in them that I say that we can still dream that Mattheus França will become anywhere near the player we want him to be, the player he was sold to us as, because that’s what it would take: a miracle. That’s why I’ll clarify: we can dream, but there isn’t much hope.
HOW DID WE GET HERE?
To put it another way, there is a short supply of belief that França will live up to his original promise or his hype; we must instead have faith in him as a player. Faith, definitionally, is belief without need of proof. That’s why I have faith, not belief. I love him as much as we all do. I cheered as loud as the rest of us every time he got on the pitch; hell, I lost my mind when he scored his first goal for us way back when, and I am thrilled to see him back in training this summer.
But I must also take a step back and look at the bigger picture. He’s got a goal against Southampton more than a year ago, and an assist against Burnley more than two years ago to show for his time at Palace. During his year-long loan spell back in Brazil at relegation-threatened Vasco da Gama, he’s been benched (much) more often than not, and has scored just the one goal. A winning goal, sure, but one that came against a side currently sitting fourth from bottom in the Chilean Primera División. His career displayed through match ratings on FotMob closely resembles a Floridian crop yield: mostly orange.
All of that to say: he’s had a rough time of things. The honest truth of it is that even his dribbling highlights aren’t enough to look past his sub-par statistics. But is that the problem? Was the expectation always too much? Not necessarily suggesting that it weighed on him too much, but more so that we as a fanbase expected, or wanted, more from him than he could really be.
Let’s look back at the facts: three years ago we paid around £17 million (#5 on the record signings list at the time) for a kid from Brazil with just more than 50 professional appearances, and less than ten goals to show for it. On top of the fee, we gave him Wilfried Zaha’s number 11 shirt. Despite his humble resumé, he came with a Ballon D’or clause in his contract, which laid out the expectation that he would be a little bit more than something special. At this point, it’s safe to say that he isn’t.
WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE HIM?
The next question we need to ask ourselves, then, is if he’s got enough to make a place for himself at Palace outside of the centre-stage. Like I said, he’s nothing extra-ordinary as a footballer, but there’ve been plenty of Palace players in recent memory that have been that way.
Jordan Ayew averaged around seven goal contributions a season for six years at Palace, and he still started for most of that time. While he wasn’t an exceptional player, he was certainly nothing to scoff at, and Palace fans remember his time at the club fondly. You can say that even for all his output, we should be past starting players like Ayew, with the direction that the club’s going in, but just because a player of his quality wouldn’t start in today’s Palace doesn’t mean that a player like that has no place in the squad.
França’s best position is undoubtedly as a number 10, which, if Sage intends to stick with the 3-4-2-1, I very much hope he does, is a position which we need players for. Starting quality is just about set in the attacking midfielder role; our starting men are Conference League POTS Ismaïla Sarr and World Cup Finalist (at the time of writing – vamos España) Yeremy Pino. But past that, there’s a bit of an opening that França could fill.
Our back-ups for that position include: Eddie Nketiah, persistently injured and really more of number 9 anyways; Justin Devenny, who has proved little but his commitment and A+ effort; Brennan Johnson, doesn’t seem to have touched the ground in SE25, let alone hit it running; and Romain Esse, who could be the subject of a piece similar to this one if things don’t improve.
While Daichi Kamada can and has filled in at the 10, we’d all much rather he stays in the double-pivot, where he’s much more effective.
Of all the names put forward, I don’t see much reason why França couldn’t put his hat in the ring as a solid bench or rotational option this season. This, of course, is said with more than a month left in the transfer window, in which proven-quality attacking depth could definitely be added.
SUMMARY
To review the opening statement, I still think that hope is fading fast that França can become a star at Crystal Palace. He hasn’t shown anything to suggest he can really cut it at the top level, but that doesn’t mean he can’t show it in the future. That being said, the future is now for Mattheus França. Something big has to change for him, and it needs to change fast. Tomorrow is always another day, but for Mattheus França, it’s a day he needs to seize.
