Crystal Palace best youngsters: 'Enormous' talent and next Jamie Vardy headline next generation

Eagles have a proud history of producing their own talents
Viral: Ebiowei hit headlines with a stunning goal against Stevenage
Getty Images
Dom Smith16 November 2023

With a proud history of producing players often hailing from south London themselves, the Crystal Palace academy is currently nurturing some very promising youngsters.

Academy director Gary Issott continues to use Palace legend Wilfried Zaha as an example to young prospects, demonstrating what they could achieve in their fledgling careers.

Here, Standard Sport assesses the young Palace stars for whom there are high hopes.

Malcolm Ebiowei (midfielder, 20 years old)

Signed from Derby last year, he went viral this week with a stunning goal from 40 yards for Palace Under-21s in their EFL Trophy defeat to Stevenage.

Ebiowei made five appearances for Palace last season before spending the second half of the season on loan in the Championship with Hull.

Was handed his senior debut at Derby by Wayne Rooney, who said: "He has got an enormous amount of ability."

Wells-Morrison is highly thought of at the Palace academy
Getty Images

Jack Wells-Morrison (midfielder, 19 years old)

A versatile midfielder who is just as comfortable sitting deep as he is in an attacking role, he is highly thought of at Palace's Copers Cope Road academy.

Wells-Morrison committed his future to Crystal Palace last week, signing a one-year contract extension to a deal which was due to expire next summer.

May well go out on loan to an EFL side for the second half of the season.

Wells-Morrison has scored three goals in six Premier League 2 games this season and made the bench for Palace's EFL Cup win over Plymouth in August.

Zach Marsh (forward, 18 years old)

Quick and sharp in the box, he has drawn comparisons with Jamie Vardy.

Joined Palace via Watford in 2022 and has not looked back.

Marsh has already scored 14 times this season with a strike rate of a goal ever 79 minutes.

Was playing grassroots football aged 14, and looks up to Harry Kane for his work ethic and how he conducts himself both on and off the pitch.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in

MORE ABOUT