Four nations (and the world) at his feet
MIKE WALTERS INSIDE FOOTBALL.. AND OUTSIDE THE BOX READING’S YOUNG STAR
AT 19, Michael Olise has the world at his jinking feet.
Qualified to play for four nations – England, France, Nigeria and Algeria – the Reading playmaker looks destined for the top.
As the country of his birth, England hold the trump card. And his younger brother Richard, who is on Chelsea’s books, has been capped at schoolboy level by the Three Lions.
France were first to pick up the phone, inviting him to play for their Under-18s at the Toulon festival two years ago.
Olise’s mother is French, so he had no hesitation in accepting the offer from Les Bleus. And with African roots, he is not spoiled for choice when it comes to passports.
Of all the footballers Reading have cultivated and packaged for the big stage down the years – and there have been plenty, notably Neil Webb, Kerry Dixon and Gylfi Sigurdsson – few have opened the curtains on a brighter future as a teenager than
Olise. One of the Royals’ best traditions is to present academy graduates who make it into the first team with a framed shirt to commemorate the occasion.
“The No.48 shirt from my debut is one of my most prized possessions,” said Olise, the EFL’s Young Player of the Month for December.
“My parents are looking after it. They know how much it means to me – and to them.”
That seminal souvenir is unlikely to be the last memorabilia Olise collects. His happy feet, versatility and star quality have already made him a marked man.
If lowly Derby – still in the quicksands despite Wayne Rooney’s earliest forays into management – have been the suspect package of the Championship, Reading have been the surprise package. “We haven’t been surprised,” said Olise. “We’ve had a new manager bringing his ideas into the club, setting out how he wants us to play and everyone has responded.
“There are a lot of quality players in our team, and although we finished mid-table last year, we always knew there was more to come.
“It wasn’t a fluke we were top of the league after 10 or 11 games.
“Other people might have not expected us to be there, but we started as we intend to finish. What would represent a good season for us now? First – not second, or the play-offs. We mean business.”
Royals head coach Veljko Paunovic may not have been a household name in his own household when he became their left-field choice to succeed Mark
Bowen at the Madejski, but the Championship knows all about him now. Five years ago, Paunovic led his native Serbia to glory at the FIFA U-20 World Cup, beating Brazil – including Manchester City striker Gabriel Jesus – in the final, and he was once Diego Simeone’s roommate at Atletico Madrid.
Olise said: “He does a lot of work with us on the training pitch – especially our shape, our mentality as a team, and he goes into a lot of detail. But it’s the quality of his work and the intensity that we try to replicate on matchdays.
“My best position? Any position the manager tells me to play. At my age, it’s important to spend time on the pitch because it’s the best place to learn and develop your game.”
With a posse of big clubs monitoring him like drones, and four nations possibly vying for his loyalty, Olise is one of the most coveted prospects outside the Premier League.
‘Finishing first would be a good season for us, not second or the play-offs. We mean business’