Crystal Palace have announced Wilfried Zaha has put pen to paper on a new five-year deal keeping him at the club until 2023.
Zaha was heavily linked with a summer move away from Selhurst Park and was reportedly keen to join Chelsea or Tottenham.
Palace were not interested in losing their best player and were successful in fending off interest from their Premier League rivals.
Roy Hodgson’s side reportedly slapped a £75m valuation on Zaha’s head to ward Chelsea and Spurs and have now rewarded the Ivorian with improved terms.
“I’m very pleased,” he told the club’s official website. “Obviously, I just wanted to get it over and done with, so I can just focus on the season. I’m buzzing that we managed to get it sorted.”
Zaha is arguably the best player in the Premier League outside the division’s traditional ‘top-six’ and it’s a huge boost for Palace to retain his services for the foreseeable future.
The 25-year-old opened his account for the season in Palace’s 2-0 win over Fulham last weekend to emphasise his importance for the club.
Palace lost all nine of the Premier League matches Zaha did not start last season and arguably would have gone down without his influence.
Furthermore, in the last three Premier League campaigns, only Eden Hazard (313) has completed more dribbles than Zaha (262).
