CHENNAI: France has no shortage of superstars; there’s the mercurial Kylian Mbappe, and there’s the two-footed genius and burst of pace from Ousmane Dembele. However, the one that’s bringing swag to this French unit is a 24-year-old born in London, Michael Olise, who has scored zero goals in the competition.
Yet, he’s truly the playmaker who has kept this well-oiled unit running, with five assists in the competition—closing in on the top-five all-time assists chart—despite playing his first World Cup. If France continues this dazzling run, which it is expected to, given it plays Paraguay next, Olise will have the opportunity to surpass Brazil’s Ademir (1950) to have the most assists in a World Cup campaign.
Five years ago, Olise was still playing for Reading in England’s second division, the Championship. But a move to Crystal Palace in the summer of 2021 turned his career around, as his three-year period at the London club helped him earn a big-money move to Bayern Munich.
At Munich, Olise has established himself as one of the best players in the world, scoring 25 goals and assisting 28 times for the Bavarian giants. In France’s first game at this year’s World Cup against Senegal, it was a tactical switch around giving Olise more prominence on the pitch that turned the game around for Les Bleus.
Away from the pitch, the 24-year-old is an introvert who doesn’t attend France’s press conferences, but on it, he’s perhaps the most expressive of all French players.
"Let's just say I prefer to talk with my feet," he told French sports daily L'Equipe recently.