2021 Super Eagles invitee wins December Player of the Month award at Crystal Palace

The gifted midfielder was the star man for the Eagles during their friendly tour in a month where the focus was chiefly on the FIFA World Cup

2021 Super Eagles invitee Michael Olise has been named the winner of Crystal Palace’s Player of the Month award for December.

In a month when the focus of the first three weeks was centred on actions at the FIFA World Cup in Qatar, Olise excelled in the colours of Crystal Palace.

Olise is eligible to play international football for Nigeria, Algeria, England, and France. But while the two African nations did not qualify for Qatar 2022, the two European countries snubbed Olise in their squad to the Mundial.

The youngster took the disappointment on the chin, though, and went with Crystal Palace to Turkey to participate in the Eagles’ mid-season camping.

Olise starred for Patrick Vieira’s men in friendlies against the likes of Napoli, Botafogo, and Real Valladolid. Palace avoided defeat in three of those games, losing only to a Victor Osimhen-inspired Napoli (3-1 to the Italians) on December 11.

The Premier League returned at the end of December with Palace losing to Fulham and beating Bournemouth 2-0 away on the final day of the year.

Olise was crucial to that victory, providing the assists to both goals scored by Jordan Ayew and Eberechi Eze.

Fans took notice of his consistency and quality throughout the period under review and an overwhelming majority (31.3%) voted for him as their best player.

Eze followed in second place (21.3%) while Ayew came in third (13.1%).