Spezia Calcio striker M’Bala Nzola has explained how he was once close to quitting football, thanks to being turned down by Crystal Palace as a youngster.
The striker has been speaking to Calciomercato amid an impressive campaign in Serie A this season, in which he’s managed 12 goals and two assists for the Italian side.
That puts him joint third in the goalscoring charts this season an impressive tally that means he is only behind Lautaro Martinez and Victor Osimhen but ahead of big names such as Paulo Dybala, Ciro Immobile and Rafael Leão.
The tally is all the more impressive given Spezia are currently 17th in the table and locked into a relegation battle, with five points separating them from Verona in 18th at present.
It’s been a long road to the top for the 26-year-old, who started his career with Troyes in France and has played for the likes of Virtus Francavilla Calcio in Serie C, Carpi and Trapani before joining Spezia on a free transfer two years ago.
It seems things could have been very different, though, with the player once left considering his future after rejection from Crystal Palace.
“I went to Troyes when I was a kid, I even did a trial at Crystal Palace,” he told the website.
“The first of a long series. Everywhere I went, they told me no. My agent, Didier Pingisi, gave me a chance with Cremonese: we played the Dossena Trophy, but nothing there either.
“Lots of tests. In the end I went to Portugal, to the Académica. I scored on my debut, in the cup, against Porto. I was 18, there was no room for me.
“The following year I went down to the third division, still in Portugal. Stop: Sertanense. Sign, but the company is not in a good position economically.
“The round of the auditions starts again. Perugia also refuses me. I was exhausted, the right place for Nzola didn’t seem to exist. Nowhere. In Italy or elsewhere. I said: ‘Enough, I’m going back to France’.
“My attorney called me: ‘Mbala, stop. There is the last chance. Their name is Virtus Francavilla, I managed to get a trial’. We left by train: 7 hours of travel, endless. I was demotivated, he said to me: ‘This is your first Champions League final’.
“We stopped all the time, in every little village on the coast. Time never passed, anxieties rose to my throat. Not for the performance I should have done, but for the feeling of despondency that I kept inside. I would have gone back to France, to do who knows what.”
Crystal Palace, who recently fired Patrick Vieira amid a lack of goals, could probably do with someone like Nzola now.
