Michael Olise left fans and players baffled after his strangely muted celebration having scored a stunning late equaliser against Man United.
The Crystal Palace winger rescued a point for his side in their Premier League encounter with the Red Devils after scoring a stoppage time free-kick at Selhurst Park.
Despite the pandemonium in the stands, Olise looked almost unimpressed with his own effort – by performing a subdued celebration – and the reasons behind doing so have now been revealed by former team-mates.
Olise’s former Reading team-mate, defender Tom McIntyre, spoke with The Athletic and lifted the lid on the winger subdued scoring reactions.
‘We’d be like, ‘Mike, you’ve just scored an important goal and you’re just walking back? What’s he doing?
‘Then he’d play two-touch with the manager (Paunovic) in the gym, he’d win a point in that, and he’d be shouting and celebrating, but on a Saturday, he’d score a goal in front of the home end and just stand there.
‘We never really worked out why. He could never give us an answer but he’s just different; a special player.’
The France U-21 winger notched seven goals in three seasons at the Madejski Stadium before earning an £ 8.37 million move to Palace in the summer of 2021.
McIntyre – who has been at Reading his whole career – went on to suggest that the winger enjoys being ‘different and cool’.
‘Midway through last season, he unfollowed all of us on Instagram and only followed about 15 people,’ said the Reading defender.
‘There was no one from Reading except maybe one or two of his closest mates on there, which we all found pretty amusing.
‘I know what it is, he loves the rapper Lil Uzi Vert and there’s another few of those rappers he likes. They unfollow everyone on their Instagram and I think he wants to be like them. That’s strange to me and some of the lads but to him, that’s different and cool.’
In November last year, Olise gave a strangely blunt interview after scoring against West Ham.
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