Who needs Kylian Mbappe? How Crystal Palace cult hero Jean-Philippe Mateta overcame an eight-month goal drought to become France's Olympic icon

It's a truly incredible turn of events for a player that was struggling terribly at Crystal Palace just over eight months ago. Indeed, as the January 2024 transfer window approached, Mateta was being linked with a move away from Selhurst Park. It wasn't hard to work out why, as he was rarely starting and barely scoring.

However, an injury to Palace's first-choice No.9, Odsonne Eduard, during the first half of the Premier League clash with Liverpool on December 6 completely altered the course of Mateta's career.

The former Mainz forward was brought on during the interval at Selhurst Park and won a penalty that he converted himself. On the same day that Mohamed Salah scored his 200th goal for Liverpool, Mateta netted his first in the Premier League for eight months.

He was on target again the very next week - this time from open play - as Palace came from 2-0 down to claim a draw at Manchester City, but it was only after the appointment of Oliver Glasner as Roy Hodgson's successor in February that a revived Mateta really caught fire.

Playing under a coach that had previously worked wonders with the likes of Wout Weghorst and Randal Kolo Muani, Mateta scored 13 goals in 13 games - more than anyone else in the Premier League during that time.

It was a truly staggering run of form from a forward that had only struck 11 times in his previous 80 appearances in England's top-flight. He was still taking as many shots; the difference was that he was putting away twice as many, with his corner flag-kicking celebration becoming a regular sight at Selhurst Park, thus transforming a player previously considered a transfer flop into a cult hero.

Mateta claimed that there was no great secret to his sudden success. "I have changed nothing," he insisted in an interview with BBC Sport. "I just keep playing hard and being ready, and now they have given me my chance.

"I just needed to play regularly. I know it is hard - because there is a lot of competition - but I knew when my time came, I was going to prove to them that I'm the striker for Palace."

Having achieved that, he turned his intention to an even more ambitious aim: becoming the striker for France too.

After such a sensational conclusion to the campaign, which propelled Palace to a club-record-equalling 10th-placed finish in the Premier League, Mateta openly admitted that he was hoping to sneak into France's squad for Euro 2024.

Didier Deschamps never came calling (perhaps a mistake in hindsight!), but Henry did, with the former Arsenal forward picking Mateta as one of his three over-age players for Paris. Perhaps even more crucially, Henry also stuck with Mateta after the in-form striker's surprisingly subdued showings in France's first two Olympic outings, against the United States and Guinea.

"He had to leave our training camp for five days to go back to his club and I think he lost a tiny bit of momentum, and that's why I wanted to rotate [against New Zealand], but I didn’t want to rotate him," Henry told FIFA. "We believe in him. I thought if we gave him the armband and played him, it would be important – and he answered."

It was an emphatic response, too.

After opening his Olympics account in the 3-0 group-stage win over New Zealand, Mateta scored the winner in the grudge match with Argentina in the quarter-finals before bagging a brace - including the late leveller that forced extra-time - in the subsequent 3-1 win over Egypt that set up Friday's showdown with Spain at Parc des Princes.

His goal-scoring exploits, coupled with an endearingly bubbly personality, have seen Mateta become one of the faces of France's Games. “He is a tremendous character,” Henry told FIFA. “The feeling he brings to the team... He is hilarious and likes to joke with everybody."

As for the man himself, he can't quite believe just how dramatically things have turned around for him in 2024, with the semi-final double making it 18 goals in Mateta's past 18 games for club and country.

"It is a dream just to be here," the former Lyon outcast told FIFA. "Ever since I was a young boy, I used to watch all the athletes at the Olympics. Now I am playing in it."

And excelling in it too. France may have wanted Mbappe at the Olympics, but they got Mateta instead - and he's not been too bad at all.