Football Dreams: The Academy follows a group of eight-to-18-year-olds at club’s Academy. The series shows a range of real and raw stories of a cast of boys and their families, from a variety of backgrounds, who all dream of making the Crystal Palace first-team.

Football Dreams: The Academy

## Ademola Ola-Adebomi

> A powerful centre-forward, who has been at the club since the age of eight.

Ola-Adebomi joined Palace aged eight in 2012 and has repeatedly progressed through the age groups, coming on as the Under-15s won the national Super Floodlit Cup final for the first time in club history in 2019.

He scored twice from the bench in his breakthrough Under-18s season in 2020/21, both in seven goal victories over West Bromwich Albion, and he made seven appearances towards the end of the season.

He then became a core part of the squad in 2021/22, signing his first professional contract in April 2022. He said: "It’s what I’ve dreamed of since the age of eight, since I joined the Academy. To get a professional contract here means the world to me."

His performances in the 21/22 season saw him net 19 goals in all competitions, including a hat-trick against Tottenham Hotspur. He earned a place in the 2022/23 pre-season squad which travelled to Australia and Sinagpore.

The forward managed to notch 31 appearances in all competitions, scoring 10 goals - including the winner against Hertha Berlin in Palace's first ever game in the Premier League International Cup.

Ola-Adebomi was named on the first-team bench for the first time in September 2023, for the third round tie against Manchester United at Old Trafford. He was also named in the squad again for Palace's Premier League fixtures against Man Utd and Nottingham Forest.

He won the Premier League 2 Player of the Month award in November 2023, for his hat-trick against Leeds United and goals against Stevenage and Birmingham City.

Ola-Adebomi

Twitter

Instagram

Interview with Ademola Ola-Adebomi after winning PL2 Player of the Month

International Cup Highlights: Crystal Palace 2-1 SL Benfica

U21 Match Highlights: Birmingham City 1-4 Crystal Palace

EFL Trophy Highlights: Stevenage 5-2 Crystal Palace U21

U21 Match Highlights: Leeds United 1-7 Crystal Palace

Ola-Adebomi and Rodney on West Brom win and the season so far

U21 Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 3-0 West Bromwich Albion

U21 Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 2-4 Liverpool

U21 Match Highlights: Middlesbrough 2-6 Crystal Palace

U21 Match Highlights: Wolverhampton Wanderers 3-2 Crystal Palace

The Players' Voice - Part 2

The Players' Voice Part 1

U21 Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 3-3 West Ham United

U21 Match Highlights: Chelsea 1-2 Palace

U21 Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 2-0 Arsenal

### **On Dean Henderson’s potential fitness…**

“I'm looking an ideal scenario where it would've been nice to have kept him back and kept him working and strengthening his hamstringing before we had to say: 'No, you are playing'.

“But he himself because he now considers himself to be fit enough to play, can't wait. So that's a positive in that respect and I think we are very fortunate that when you lose a goalkeeper of Sam Johnston's quality, you have another one of Henderson's quality to bring into the team.

“He was good and I mean he had that chance against Manchester United and the very bad injury occurred, which was devastating for him because he came here wanting to take the challenge on and put me under the pressure to decide which goalkeeper do I want to put in the team.

“Strangely enough, that situation hasn't really occurred because it's only now that he's even close to being able to say: 'You've got to consider me'. But being pushed in maybe a little bit earlier than certainly the medical department might've wanted – he wants it by the way – that situation might suit him even more.

“Because he might be looking at the situation now where he works some days and says: ‘Well, I've not been able to get a hold of the shirt because Johnstone's done so well. Now, I'm going to show that it'd be hard for Johnstone to get the shirt from me.’

“That's good competition and I'll have to deal with that when the time comes. But any problems of that nature that I don't have to deal with at this moment in time, I'll happily push to the future and worry about it when the time comes.”

### **On Ebere Eze…**

“With every day with him changes the situation, certainly he's in a much better place, much quicker than I thought he would be, but we haven't made a decision yet as to whether he'll start the game.

“In fact, we haven’t made the decision that he'll be with us and we'll make a decision probably tomorrow having also assessed what he did in training today and how he felt after training.”

### **On Jesurun Rak-Sakyi…**

“His injury was another one of those wretched injuries like Michael Olise and Ebs had, and Lerma had one for a long time as well, and they are this grade three and they involve a tendon.

“Invariably when that happens and that diagnostic comes back, I'm told the only way we'll get his muscle back to where it should be is going to take this period of time.

“In Eze's case it was well over two months and in Olise's it was well over three months and I'm afraid that's where Rak-Sakyi was. So I suppose to get a clear view myself on when can I expect them to be telling me: ‘He's getting close again?’

“I'll have to wait for that period of time to pass, but I watch him and see him every day and talk to him and he's very positive and he's certainly running and if anything he'll be ahead of the curve.

“But because these injuries are difficult, when you've passed the curve as it were and you're ready again, it's not that easy for the player or the medical staff to say.

“As you saw with Olise, we thought he'd got there after about three months and he immediately got injured again and missed another month and they don't want that to happen.

“We've got to be patient with Jes, but I think it's very positive to see him out there every day. His attitude is absolutely first class and I'd be surprised if he doesn't beat their deadline as it were. I think he'll beat that.”

### **On belief in beating Manchester City…**

“I think you've got to do that everywhere. We went into the game against Liverpool on Saturday with the odds on us getting a win being very, very low.

“I honestly believe that we would've got a win had we not had the injuries, which forced off the goalkeeper and \[Odsonne\] Edouard and Jefferson Lerma. If we hadn't had the sending off, I think we'd have gone on to win the game.

“So that's what prompts me to believe we can do it again. So I don't have any worries in that respect, but it's going to be tough because they're good. You don't win leagues year after year and Champions League unless you've got a very good team and that you are very good at what you're doing.

“We were aware of all that. It would take an exceptional performance from us to get anything from the game, but it took an exceptional performance to take the game as close as we did against Liverpool last weekend.

“So I'm hoping I'll see that exceptional performance again.”

### **On his long-term future…**

“You've got to be careful suggesting you're going to make a decision on the basis of one particular day when you feel that way. I don't know whether I want to \[continue\] or not, but I certainly don't have it as a goal to make certain I can keep going and keep going and keep going.

“I know that the day will come when it's no longer possible for me to work, so I won't have the offer if you like to work at the level I want to work at. So I know that day is going to come.

“I thought it was coming at the end of last season, but it was prolonged by the club asking me to stay on for this season. That's what I'm doing. I don't have any plans or any thoughts beyond that. I want to do well this season.

“I want to help the club have a good season and then that will be me finished with Crystal Palace Football Club and whether or not I should want to continue somewhere else, I don't know.

“I don't want to say because I had all that, well was it two or three getting on for two and a half years ago now? I had all that for about four or five months: ‘You're going to be retire, you're going to carry on?’

“And then of course don't retire. Not that I actually said I was going to, but I got sort of retired because people were reading as they thought between the lines in what I was saying. So I got retired then that retirement, lasted four or five months before I went back to Watford, and then another five or six months happened before I came back to Crystal Palace.

“I determined not to make any bold statements that this is my last season, but I can say that I'm not actively seeking at the moment or planning what I'm going to do at the end of this season. I'm planning and hoping that I'll have a good season here and then move away and then I'll see what happens.

“By Monday \[after Liverpool\] I had come out of the funk that one sometimes allows to descend upon one after bad moments, especially moments where you feel an impotent anger and you feel injustice has been brought about and you feel that you've been so badly rewarded for as a team for what you've achieved.

“But that passes by and from Monday onwards I've enjoyed the training, it's gone well. I'm looking forward to the game tomorrow, albeit I know that we're playing against a very, very good team so our chances we are less great than theirs, but that's often the case.

“There's a hierarchy in the Premier League and unfortunately when you play the very, very top teams, it's not easy for you as a manager to predict the result, but you work towards one.”

### **On his post-match comments…**

“I’m like the old people walking around in the supermarket who stand around and get in your way and because they're old and you are young! Now unfortunately that was how it used to be, now I'm with them, but I mean that's what I maybe do from time to time in the football terms.

“Maybe I have taken the liberty sometimes and said things which are, if not controversial, at least things which will alert people to certain things that happen in the game, because I feel that I can afford to do it at my stage of life and without having to worry about where the next job's going to come from.

“Some of the people around me can't do \[that\] because they're anxious to keep the job they've got, and if that job goes to get the next one. At my age, I don't find myself in that position.

“I'm just anxious to keep this job and do well at this job. And at the end of the season I know my contract will be up and then it will be up to me whether I want to join that list of people trying to put their name forward for other jobs or whether I move gracefully away or graciously away.

“I don’t know what other people think. You talk about other managers: I don't speak to other managers. I mean the only manager really I've had anything other than a 90 second conversation with either before or after the game is David Moyes after the West Ham game.

“But I can't relate to the others. I don't know what Jürgen Klopp thinks, I don't know what the guy at Bournemouth was thinking. I've no idea. I don't speak to them and they don't get in touch with me, fortunately to make any comments about what I'm saying to the press, just as I don't make any comments about what they're saying to the press in their press conference, I let get them get on with it.

“One or two journalists have contacted me to express their sympathy with the situation. But that will be all.”

### **On the stress of top-level management…**

"I'm lucky with that respect. I had that done \[a heart rate monitor fitted\] as well when I was in Sweden and it was nothing like the results that you've got here. I don't feel that.

“I feel injustice more than stress. I feel disappointment either with the way the team plays perhaps or the way the team's been treated. I feel that more than stress. That has a bigger effect upon me.

“The stress I know I can deal with. I wouldn't even have dreamt of accepting the invitation to come back here again at my age if I didn't think I could deal with the stress, if I didn't think I had the energy, if I thought seriously that my passion and enthusiasm for the game was affected in any way.

“But that's not going to unfortunately affect situations where after a game I might still be tempted at some stage to say something which will provoke a headline because I can't be bothered to accept Jo’s \[press officer Joanne Whittle\] clever advice and just go in and put a mask on and say the things which everyone else says and you've got nothing to write about.”

Roy Hodgson discussed injuries, Dean Henderson, Jesurun Rak-Sakyi, refereeing decisions and his long-term future at his press conference before facing Manchester City on Saturday (15:00 GMT) – check out every word from the manager below…

Every word from Hodgson’s embargoed press conference

Manchester City v Crystal Palace (2023-12-16)

Liverpool

Premier League

Crystal Palace

Last Match

Manchester City

Next Match

Festive Season Offers

“Tyrick Mitchell is OK which is good,” Hodgson said at his pre-match press conference. “Mitchell is the only one really who is back.

“\[Dean\] Henderson has trained this week – it is probably too early to play. We may have been obliged to ask him to play but the medical department would like him to have more time I think. The same with Ebere Eze.

“We are already missing important players in terms of \[Jordan\] Ayew who is suspended, the goalkeeper Sam Johnstone, we are missing Jefferson Lerma of course and missing Odsonne Edouard.

“So that is the spine of a team we had to play large parts of the game against Liverpool without, and that will be the same again tomorrow.”

Pre-match press conference: Manchester City (A)

The manager says Palace will have to come through a difficult period with injuries throughout the squad, after misfortune blighted what seemed to be a squad returning to full fitness.

“We’ve got 11 – we have even got a bench,” Hodgson joked. “The injury situation is bad, which is unfortunate because at one stage moving into the Luton game it was looking quite bright in terms of getting players back from injury.

“The team was looking more like what I thought the team would look like at the start of the season, which it hadn’t actually done until the Luton game.

“Now, unfortunately, we have lost players again so in this particular game we aren’t the strongest in terms of the team we can put on the field, but I think that goes for a lot of teams at the moment because lots are suffering from injury

“We aren’t the only team that can bemoan the fact we can’t put out the team of our dreams.”

Roy Hodgson says Crystal Palace are struggling with injuries but that left-back Tyrick Mitchell is fit and available to take on Manchester City at the Etihad on Saturday (15:00 GMT).

Hodgson on Mitchell return date and Henderson progress

### **Factfile**

- Manager: Pep Guardiola
- Last season: 1st
- Nickname: The Citizens
- Ground: Etihad
- Founded: 1880

### **What’s the story?**

City are aiming for a record fourth consecutive title, but a difficult November period saw them go four games without a win in the Premier League, the joint-longest spell under Guardiola’s management.

Three consecutive draws with Chelsea, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur were followed by defeat at Aston Villa, before a victory at Luton Town sealed a much-needed three points and cut the deficit to Arsenal at the top of the table.

With Arsenal, a resurgent Liverpool and an Unai Emery-inspired Aston Villa to reckon with, the title race looks to be more than a two-horse affair this season and Guardiola’s men will have to use all their experience and ability to come out on top come May.

With the potential of Erling Haaland’s injury keeping him out over Christmas, plus the long-term absence of Kevin De Bruyne, City will want to ensure the rest of their squad – midfield general Rodri in particular – can stay fit for the remainder of the campaign as they look to go up another gear in the new year.

### **The boss**

Pep Guardiola has won five Premier League titles since his arrival from Bayern Munich. He was a legendary player and manager at Barcelona, where he won the European Cup under Johan Cruyff before doing so again in the dugout.

### **The ground**

The Etihad began life as the City of Manchester Stadium, opened in 2002 for the Commonwealth Games and now leased to Manchester City from the Manchester City Council. Expansion plans mean the capacity will soon rise to close to 60,000.

### **Record against Palace**

Palace’s recent record at the Etihad is relatively strong, with important victories in 2021 – with Wilfried Zaha and Conor Gallagher the scorers – and 2018 – thanks to Andros Townsend’s Puskas Award-nominated volley – fresh in the memory.

In 2021/22, the Eagles were the only side in the Premier League to stop City scoring both at home and away.

### **Did you know?**

Man City’s first honours came in 1899 when they earned promotion to the top-flight by winning the Second Division title, but their first major trophy was the FA Cup in 1904 – and they won it at Crystal Palace.

Facing Bolton Wanderers on 23rd April, 1904 in front of an enormous crowd, City scored the only goal of the game and lifted the prestigious trophy. They were very close to a league and cup double as they finished runners-up in the title race, but it wasn’t to be – and they had to wait another 33 years for a first league title.

Man City have worn their regular sky blue colours since records began, but the story of their red and black away strips is more complicated. There is some indication, although based on archives that are hard to corroborate, that City played in scarlet and black during their period as St Mark’s in the 1880s.

However, when Malcolm Allison took over, the new strip took off. The manager’s belief was that the famous colours would inspire Man City to similar successes enjoyed by AC Milan, who were European Cup winners in 1969.

It may have worked, too, as one of City’s most successful pre-takeover periods followed. Allison – as assistant manager to Joe Mercer – guided the side to the 1969 FA Cup, 1970 League Cup and 1970 Cup Winners’ Cup playing in red and black rather than sky blue.

Palace were given a similar treatment by Allison, who replaced the traditional white strip in 1973 with red and blue stripes to replicate FC Barcelona. The Spanish side had just signed a promising looking Dutch international from Ajax by the name of Johan Cruyff, to work under a Dutch manager with wild ideals: Rinus Michels.

It had a similar effect: just 18 years later, the Eagles signed Glyn Hodges from Watford and won the Zenith Data Systems Cup.

### **Match details**

- Saturday, 16th December
- 15:00 GMT
- Etihad Stadium
- Live audio commentary on Palace TV+

Crystal Palace’s are back in Premier League action at the Etihad on Saturday, 16th December (15:00 GMT) – get the lowdown on our latest opponents…

First-team

First-team

Every word from Hodgson’s embargoed press conference

Hodgson on Mitchell return date and Henderson progress

Kit changes and Palace trophies: everything you need to know about Man City

Festive Season Offers

Latest Videos

Pre-match press conference: Manchester City (A)

Christmas Party 2023 | Crystal Palace Supporters Children's Charity

Interview with Ademola Ola-Adebomi after winning PL2 Player of the Month

Conversations in Cars with Cinch | Roy Hodgson & Mark Butcher

U21 Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 0-4 Middlesbrough

Laura Kaminski reacts to FA Cup third-round win

53Ademola
Ola-Adebomi

First-team

First-team

Every word from Hodgson’s embargoed press conference

Hodgson on Mitchell return date and Henderson progress

Kit changes and Palace trophies: everything you need to know about Man City

Festive Season Offers

Latest Videos

Pre-match press conference: Manchester City (A)

Christmas Party 2023 | Crystal Palace Supporters Children's Charity

Interview with Ademola Ola-Adebomi after winning PL2 Player of the Month

Conversations in Cars with Cinch | Roy Hodgson & Mark Butcher

U21 Match Highlights: Crystal Palace 0-4 Middlesbrough

Laura Kaminski reacts to FA Cup third-round win

53AdemolaOla-Adebomi

53Ademola
Ola-Adebomi