FA Cup winner Eberechi Eze has told Sky News he wants to help kids with his foundation, both inside the sport he has found so much success with, and beyond it.
Eze scored the winning goal in Crystal Palace’s recent 1-0 victory over seven-time winners Man City to secure the club’s first major piece of silverware.
Speaking to Sky News’ lead UK presenter Sarah-Jane Mee during the third Annual Eze Invitational tournament to discuss the win, his views on being a role model and the work he hopes to achieve with his foundation.
More than the football
In between watching a nearby game of football during a tournament he organised, he said: “On this front it’s just to expose them to football, being at a professional club, [giving them] no stumbling blocks along the way that’s stopping you from playing football, which is normally the case when you’re young, or from difficult areas.
“So to be able to put on a tournament that’s free to kids and they can leave with free food, free boots, whatever, that’s something we would’ve dreamed of as kids.
“It’s also about exposing them to opportunities outside of the world of football, outside what is the norm in south London.
“You’re maybe only exposed to being a footballer, being a rapper, or anything else like that.
“So, to expose them to different sides of life, different opportunities, different ways of being.
“That’s the difference, once you’re exposed to it, you know it’s out there, then you have something to aim for, and that’s what we’re trying to do for these kids.”
Winning in south London
The England international has been a key part of Palace’s push for FA Cup glory.
He scored the winning goal in the final, as well as scoring in the semi-finals and quarter-finals.
Ahead of a summer in which there will invariably be much speculation over whether he will move clubs, Eze described Palace’s win, which also guaranteed European football next season, and the subsequent trophy parade as a “crazy experience”.
“For me it’s special. It’s the stuff you’re dreaming about. It’s everything,” he said.
Being a male role model
Eze also echoed the words of the England manager who gave him his international debut, Sir Gareth Southgate, when asked about the importance of positive male role models.
“I think that’s something we’re lacking massively,” he said.
Southgate made the comments during a lecture, where he warned that young boys needed role models beyond online influencers.
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Eze went on: “People we can look up to, to actually show us what it means to be a man, what it means to strive for something, to become something, to make something of yourself, that’s something we’re definitely lacking now.”
The 26-year-old suggested he wanted to see more from “other people in my position” and described “an obligation” to act as a role model for young boys.
“It’s important,” he said. “People are watching, people are looking at me.”
