We saw a few snippets of this last week, but finally the full thing is out – Cole Palmer meets Gianfranco Zola.
The little Sardinian magician meets the Wythenshawe wizard, and the personality combination is as hilarious as you’d expect. Palmer opens up more and more with time – his monosyllabic phase is behind him, much to the relief of TV producers worldwide.
Palmer and Zola linked up in a feature for the Premier League at Cobham where they talked all about the similarities and differences in their game, and had some fun taking free kicks together and just having a nice time passing on some knowledge.
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Cole Palmer waits with the ball. (Photo by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images)
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You can see the superb feature in the clip embedded here:
Cole Palmer and Gianfranco Zola having fun at Cobham.
Cole Palmer and Gianfranco Zola having fun at Cobham.
Palmer’s dad and the “cage” connection
The first topic they got onto was the subject of how Cole got so damn good technically. Zola asks him about the sessions he used to have down at the park, trapping high balls out of the air.
The next topic was the next stage in Cole’s development – playing small sided football in the “cage” with the older boys. He says he had to work on his skill to compensate – and then he got taller and was able to compete physically too.
Sadly Zola didn’t have the same growth spurt – but he always made the most of his low centre of gravity.
One hilarious moment comes when they’re keeping the ball up between them – Cole fumbles his first attempt on his right side and insists “I haven’t got a right foot.” He’s exaggerating – but it is quite wild the discrepancy between his left and right. When it comes to two-footedness, there’s no doubt Zola is the winner.
The final section was shooting – take a touch and hit it. We could watch Palmer’s long left peg strike balls all day long.