Jeffrey Schlupp added an FA Cup winners’ medal to his remarkable trophy haul despite playing only 13 minutes in Crystal Palace’s road to glory. The Eagles sensationally beat Manchester City last Saturday to claim the club’s first major trophy in their 120-year history.
Schlupp is a Premier League champion from his time with Leicester. He made 24 appearances as the Foxes trumped odds of 5,000/1 in 2015-16. And incredibly, he added two medals to his mantelpiece in a single afternoon at the weekend.
The 32-year-old played 13 minutes in Palace’s third-round victory over Stockport County on January 12. A solitary goal by Eberechi Eze started the quest for Wembley. The same scoreline and scorer secured the FA Cup four months later.
But Schlupp did not play any further part as Palace defeated Doncaster, Millwall, Fulham, Aston Villa and City. That is because he joined Celtic on loan on transfer deadline day at the start of February.
Schlupp had struggled to get into Oliver Glasner’s team. A spate of late substitute appearances meant he appeared in only 94 minutes across 12 Premier League outings at the start of the campaign.
The Ghana international went on to play nine times for Celtic in the Scottish Premiership and featured twice in the Champions League. Before Palace’s FA Cup final outing, he helped the Glaswegians retain the Premiership title for the fourth consecutive year.
His appearance for Palace against Stockport also earned Schlupp an FA Cup winners’ medal. He has shown off the golden gong on his Instagram page.
Schlupp can still claim a third medal of the season this weekend. Celtic are strong favourites to lift the Scottish Cup and face Aberdeen at Hampden Park.
Meanwhile, the versatile star has insisted that he would be happy to join Celtic permanently when his Palace contract expires in the summer. However, he could have added competition from incoming signing Kieran Tierney, who is joining from Arsenal.
Schlupp said last month: "I’m loving it here at the minute. Regarding next season, nothing has been spoken about. I’m concentrating on this season, getting more minutes and winning more games.
"Hopefully I can finish off the campaign strongly, but everything is a possibility. I had to think seriously about coming here in the first place, and anything that happens in the summer will be a big decision for me too — but we’ll see what happens."