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Cole Palmer's on-field display in Wednesday's UEFA Conference League final was attention-grabbing in its own right, but the Chelsea player continued to steal the attention in his post-match interviews following the Blues' victory.
The Blues came back from a 1-0 deficit against Real Betis at halftime of Wednesday's game at Wroclaw Stadium in Poland, going on to win 4-1 and becoming the first team to win the UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League and the Conference League in the process. Palmer played a crucial role in the game with two assists in the second half, winning the player of the match honors in the process.
When it came time to do post-match interviews on the pitch, though, Palmer found an unexpected spot for his individual accolade. In order to hold a microphone, he placed the player of the match award in his shorts instead of using his free left hand to hold the prize. When prompted about it by CBS Sports' Anita Jones, he had a simple response.
"I got no pockets, so I put it there," Palmer said.
Palmer kept the mood light in his post-match press conference, posing a question of his own to the officials in the room.
"Can I ask a question? Who gives [the] player of the tournament [award] for the competition?" he asked, listening as someone in the room told him the decision belongs with the UEFA Technical Observer Panel. He quickly shared that there was an important reason behind his question.
"Okay, can someone tell him that Tosin wants it?" Palmer quipped, pointing at teammate Tosin Adarabioyo, who burst into laughter. "Thank you."
The comedic notes capped off an important outing for the 23-year-old Palmer. He played a major role in Chelsea's second half turnaround, attributing the team's performance after the break to a few small notes manager Enzo Maresca provided at halftime.
"He didn't really say much, to be fair. He just said we're losing too many second balls," Palmer said. "We need to start playing like we're in a final and I think we woke up and we showed up second half … In the second half, I just tried to find spaces where I could be more dangerous and I felt we were playing too safe at times so when I got a ball for the first assist, I thought, 'I'm not going back again.'"
Though this was his first major final for Chelsea, the 23-year-old Palmer is developing a reputation for delivering on big occasions. He previously scored in the Community Shield and the UEFA Super Cup for Manchester City and registered England's lone goal in their 2-1 loss to Spain in the final of the Euros last year, living up to the billing as one of the game's top rising stars.
"I love finals," Palmer said. "All the finals I've played in, I feel like I've contributed, so I just like the occasion."
Palmer also recognized this was a formative moment for this version of Chelsea, who became the youngest team in the history of the Premier League this season with lineups featuring players whose average age was 24 years and 36 days. He described the Conference League as a first notable accomplishment for the Blues, who will take a next step when they compete in the Champions League next season thanks to their fourth-place Premier League finish this campaign.
"This competition's a good step for us," Palmer said. "We're playing in this because last season, we deserved to play in this. Like the manager said, now we're in the Champions League … I think we've got a lot of potential. We've got a great squad, great manager and obviously we're a great team, but we're showing, like on Sunday, we can win at tough places, we can come from behind in finals. I think we're going in the right direction."
As for how he will celebrate?
"No comment," he said with a smirk.