Had chosen a different path he could have been lining up for in Miami in Saturday’s bronze final. After all, one of Les Bleus’ main attacking talents was born in London and had the chance of playing for England along with the countries of his parents, Nigerian father Vincent and French-Algerian mother Mina.
“I actually come from four countries” is what winger Olise, now 24, told the Bayern Munich website in December 2024. “I consider myself very lucky to possess these four parts, which all enrich me. When I was growing up in London, we regularly visited Algeria, Nigeria and France.”
His childhood influences were varied, but when it comes to football, it was England that formed and “enriched” him. True, his favourite player as a boy was Neymar, but Olise grew up in west London and as a schoolboy had spells with both Chelsea and Manchester City. Yet eventually it was at Reading, then in the Championship, English football’s second tier, that he took his first steps in the professional game.
Those who saw Olise then note that his pathway was not entirely straightforward. He was introverted. At the same time, he exuded a quiet but absolutely concrete confidence in his abilities. As one coach who saw him glide around pitches at that age puts it, even at 15 Olise seemed sure he would “go to the very top”.
“He arrived with challenges having already been released by Chelsea and Man City,” explains Lee Herron, then academy manager at Reading, who signed Olise as an U-15 player. “Yet the coaches at Reading believed in him and backed him.”
Tom Cooper, then the performance analyst for Reading’s academy, adds: “He was gangly and raw physically, but he had these ‘wow’ moments mixed with some really clinical finishing. Funnily, though, he never celebrated his goals.” This last point suggests an idiosyncratic streak echoed today by accounts of Olise forgoing boot deals and shunning the limelight.
Yet Olise soon displayed his flowering talents. He was Reading’s Scholar of the Season in 2018/19, the campaign in which he turned 17. Towards its end, Reading’s then coach Jose Gomes gave him his first-team debut, as a substitute in a 3-0 home defeat by Leeds United, exactly three months after his 17th birthday. After four league appearances that term, Olise earned his first opportunity with France with a call-up to represent their U-18 team in that June's Toulon Tournament.
Further progress followed with Reading the next year as he made 19 outings – 13 of them starts – in the 2019/20 Championship campaign before finding another level in his third and final year in the blue-and-white hoops of the Royals. Olise started 37 league matches and appeared in seven more off the bench, scoring seven goals including an 89th-minute winner at Queens Park Rangers on his 19th birthday.
In addition, he contributed 12 assists and, according to Cooper, his stats in 2020/21 placed him among the best players for creativity in the top two divisions of England, along with the top tiers of Spain, Germany, France and Italy. "It shows he was among the best-performing creative players in Europe even when playing for Reading in the Championship," adds Cooper of a player who currently heads, with five.
Those exploits earned Olise not only a move to Crystal Palace, but recognition as the English Football League’s Young Player of the Year. In addition, the Professional Footballers’ Association voted him into the Championship’s Team of the Season.
It would be wrong to say the rest is history. After all, he still had to prove himself in the Premier League, as he would do at Crystal Palace over three seasons between 2021 and 2024 prior to joining Bayern. Yet Reading had provided that first springboard. “We wouldn’t have guessed then that he’d become one of the best in the world,” says Herron proudly, “but that points to his dedication and the support of those around him.”
Sources: FIFA Official
