How did England miss out on France star Michael Olise?

If Michael Olise wins the World Cup, there will be a corner of a Hayes housing estate that is forever France. It is Olise’s corner, a scrap of parkland grass among the west London suburban homes where a seven-year-old practised his football with his brother, Richard.

“Football in these conditions, it’s just freedom,” Olise told L’Équipe last month. “It’s not really learning in the strict sense. It was simply the pleasure of playing football. I just loved it.”

Sean Conlon, one of Olise’s early coaches with Old Isleworthians in west London, recalls: “I would go over to his house and he would be practising outside with Richard. That little estate probably really aided him; there weren’t a lot of cars but it had a lot of concrete open space and then a small green. He’d just be practising out here all the time, obsessed with football.”

Fast forward 10 years and Olise was at Reading, having been rejected by Chelsea’s and Manchester City’s academies. Brendan Flanagan was the academy scout who recruited him for the Championship side and recalls a game he watched.

“We were playing Sparta Prague in the European Under-21 Cup,” Flanagan says. “I got there at half‑time. Michael was about 17 and on the bench. I sat in front of [the former Crystal Palace and West Ham player] Hayden Mullins, who used to work for us and who I got on well with. Michael came on with 17 minutes to go. Within five minutes Hayden leaned over to me and said: ‘Who the fuck is that?!’ I just started laughing. And Hayden said: ‘Come on then, tell me, where did you find this one?’ So I explained the story ...”

Which takes us back to Conlon and that housing estate in Hayes. Because it isn’t just a mystery tale of how Chelsea and City let Olise, one of the outstanding stars of the World Cup and a Ballon d’Or contender, slip through their clutches. It is also the story of how and why he never represented England despite being born there and coming up through the English system.

“When I first saw him play for Hayes when he was six what stood out was his physical movement,” says Conlon. “He glides around the pitch: very graceful, perfect co-ordination, everything effortless. The way he moves today was how he moved when he was six. That’s something he’s been born with. People say he’s the best player England has ever developed.”

Conlon had coached at Chelsea, and as soon as Olise was old enough, at nine, he was swept up into the club’s academy. His talent was still evident because City took him on – he was in Cole Palmer’s year group and a year behind Phil Foden – yet they also released him, at 16. At which point he returned to Conlon, who runs an academy called We Make Footballers. Olise was looking desperately for a pro club when a contact of Flanagan recommended him.

“There was a lot of scepticism from various members of staff at Reading that he would be a bad egg,” says Flanagan. “[They said]: ‘He’s been released by Chelsea, by Man City. We shouldn’t be bringing him in. He’ll be a problem.’ I said: ‘Look, let’s just get the kid in and make our decision.’”

Conlon concurs. “All the other scouts were: ‘He’s just come out of Manchester City, he’s just come out of Chelsea, why have they not kept him on?’ They were half and half. They could see him and say: ‘Why are we not taking this talent?’ But Reading were the ones that committed.”

Olise had to travel to Reading from London for training, but the club would arrange for a shuttle bus to pick up the London trainees from the station to drive them to the training ground. “On his first day I got a call from him at the station and he was asking: ‘Where do I need to pick the bus up please?’” Flanagan says. “I directed him to the shuttle bus but everything was ‘please’ and ‘thank you’ and I thought to myself: ‘This ain’t a bad kid. He’s just a kid who’s a bit misunderstood, different.’

“And we never had a problem with him. He wasn’t ever a bad lad. He was always an intelligent, quiet lad who just expressed himself a bit differently. What wasn’t right for them [City and Chelsea] ... well, we’re just little old Reading. We can work with these kids.”

Olise progressed quickly to Reading’s under-21s, where Flanagan and Mullins saw him play against Sparta Prague. “He was absolutely unbelievable that day,” says Flanagan. “Hayden and I shook hands at the end and said: ‘This kid will play for the first team by the end of the season.’

“A few weeks later, Olise was asked to make up numbers in first‑team training by the then manager, José Gomes. “That Saturday he was on the bench and he made his debut soon after. The manager obviously saw him and thought: ‘This kid is unbelievable.’”

As for England, they never came calling. Olise himself is respectful of all the countries in which he has roots. His mum, Mina, is French Algerian and his dad, Vincent, is British Nigerian. “I actually come from four countries,” he told the Bayern Munich website last season. “France, Algeria, Nigeria and Great Britain. I consider myself very lucky to possess these four parts, which all enrich me.

“I’ve developed attachments in all my countries. When I was growing up in London, we regularly visited Algeria, Nigeria and France. My dad always spoke English with me at home, my mum, French.”

He wasn’t on England’s radar as a teenager. “We weren’t as attractive a club,” says Flanagan. “It’s slightly changed now, but back then, for England, generally, you had to come from Chelsea, Manchester City, Manchester United and Arsenal.

“France reached out to us and we spoke to Michael. I think they were given information that there was a French connection. They were the first one who selected him [for the under-18s] and, even though England came in for him for the under-20s, he was happy where he was.”

To be fair, England were in the midst of a golden generation of talent, fuelled by the reform of club academies which began in 2012 and now provides the bedrock of the England team. In Olise’s immediate age group were Palmer, Bukayo Saka, Morgan Rogers, Anthony Gordon and Noni Madueke, with Jude Bellingham and Germany’s Jamal Musiala, then at Chelsea and playing for England, the year below.

Premier League academies have educated the world; it must be frustrating for the English Football Association that the best creative player at the World Cup was born in England and yet is playing for France. Olise has provided more assists – five – than anyone else at the tournament.

“Could I see he would reach the levels that he’s reached?” asks Flanagan. “I don’t think anyone could. Some kids do look like they might be a Ballon d’Or contender at 16 and then kind of level out. But Michael was on a trajectory that went up and up and up, and he still hasn’t levelled off. He just seems to be getting better and better. He’s always had a picture in his head, saw things quicker than anyone else and had the ability to find a way to make the pass. But he’s just gone to another level.”

“It’s crazy,” says Conlon. “With the under-8s, we say to the kids: ‘One day you’re going to win the World Cup. One day you’re going to win the Champions League.’ This is why you have to have these standards. You preach it and now we’ve actually had someone go and do it.”

All of which leaves a small dilemma for Olise’s childhood mentors. What to do if England meet France in the World Cup final? “I’m going to be sat on the fence,” says Flanagan. “I want Michael to do well, but I want England to win as well. So I probably won’t watch the game and stay out of the way.”