Eberechi Eze strokes his chin, deep in thought.
It is early May and Eze is playing against Minecraft streamer Sapnap in the final of the amateur Pogchamps 6 chess tournament. The commentators – Andrea and Alexandra Botez, sisters who are two renowned chess players and social media stars – aren’t entirely sure who Eze is, but the live chat is full of Crystal Palace fans.
And one thing they notice is: Eze is actually really good.
Through the tournament he starts each match with a King’s Indian setup, sets traps, springs surprise attacks formulated several moves in advance.
Plays that surprise even the commentators, one of whom is a former FIDE Master.
“Ebs does not miss a moment,” Andrea says after Eze’s win. “He is a very terrifying opponent.”
Eze smiles down the camera, waggles a forefinger. “One more,” he says. He is one game away from the $20,000 prize.
“Show me the money!” he adds, quoting the famous Jerry Maguire line.
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Eze’s long road back to Arsenal (Photo: Reuters)
He has time for a quick interview with the commentators who ask if chess has transferrable skills to football.
“I think so,” he says. “Chess is deep, man. The way I see chess now I’ve started to apply that to life and how I play football. Thinking steps ahead and trying to calculate how people are thinking while they’re making decisions.”
To learn more about Eze’s unique mindset, there are perhaps few individuals better to discuss and dissect it than Steve Sallis, who has not only worked as Eze’s mindset coach for several years, but first met the footballer when he was around 11 years old.
Eze attended The John Roan School, in Greenwich, when Sallis was P.E. teacher at Blackheath Bluecoat School, famously attended by the Ferdinand brothers, and the two schools regularly met each other on the pitch.
“Ebs was an academic lad, bright, always did his work,” Sallis recalls.
It was a harsh environment, the teachers caring more about developing boys tempted by gangs than winning football matches, a local area that fostered a groundswell of future Premier League players, including Eze, Joe Gomez and Junior Stanislas.
Sallis explains that “Ebs was probably the best player we’d ever seen” and it came as a shock when Arsenal released him aged 13.
Later, after our interview, Sallis sends me a link to the Rising Ballers Instagram video of Eze in various youth matches: beating a player with a neat spin then arrowing the ball into the top corner; juggling the ball, clipping it to a teammate, volleying in the return pass; slipping between players like water through rocks.
But everywhere he went he found rejection. Fulham for a few years – let go. Reading for a year – let go. By then Sallis had moved into football full-time at Millwall, where they were reunited.
“We got him in because he was a bloody good human being. I can’t emphasise it enough. Low maintenance, kind, humble, just a genuinely good lad.”
LONDON, ENGLAND - AUGUST 10: Eberechi Eze of Crystal Palace celebrates with the FA Community Shield after his team's victory in the 2025 FA Community Shield match between Crystal Palace and Liverpool at Wembley Stadium on August 10, 2025 in London, England. (Photo by Sebastian Frej/Getty Images)
Eze with the Community Shield trophy (Photo: Getty)
Still, it would take one more release before an impressive trial at Queens Park Rangers led to his breakthrough. At QPR, the Under 23 head coach Paul Hall told me a couple of years ago Eze was given the nickname “Drunken Master” for his ability to trick opponents with his languid style.
Hall wondered if Eze slipped through so many nets because coaches mistook it for a lack of effort.
The words used to describe Eze in statements accompanying his signing, for a fee that could rise to £68m, were different than the usual fodder. Sporting director Andrea Berta said he was “creative and explosive”. Arteta mentioned the “new dimension” he would add to the attack.
One Crystal Palace source believes Eze could be the perfect antidote to Arsenal’s constant strive for “perfect” goals that can, at times, become predictable.
“He makes goals out of nothing,” the source says, “getting the ball and doing it himself. He wins games that sometimes you shouldn’t win, scores goals that lift the team. He’s prepared to track back and do his bit, too.
“He was very popular at every level at Crystal Palace. One of those rare players who is brilliant individually but also works hard for the team.”
Sallis, whose book Educating Football is a highly regarded bible on developing mindsets, believes the reason Eze has been able to sustain such a high level is down to his faith.
Eze is a devout Christian. “The reason players struggle at that level is their whole world is based around being a footballer. Because Ebs is so religious and spiritual he can sustain such high levels because if he plays badly at football he has his faith.
“His identity is: that’s OK, I’ve got other things going on in my world.”
Sallis’s work now with Eze is minimal – “we’re at the stage where if he wants some advice he picks up the phone”. He places him in the bracket of elite players who don’t work with Sallis reactively, but to find extra edges. And it can be the simple things.
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“The only thing I drive him mad about, and he knows this because I leave him voice notes, is get to the penalty spot. I mentioned it on a text message at the end of last season. I said: Look, just reminding you to get to the penalty spot. Ball goes out wide, just get there.”
Eze subsequently score two goals from near to the penalty spot against Tottenham, followed a week later by scoring the winner in the FA Cup final against Manchester City from virtually the same position against.
“Sometimes even the best players in the world just need reminding of the most obvious things,” Sallis adds.
There is every chance that Eze becomes a star for Arsenal and a key player for England, where he is already favoured by manager Thomas Tuchel, by next summer’s World Cup. Which is not bad for a player who is already 27 years old and has had a long, winding climb to get to the top.
“I texted him when I saw one of the Instagram posts of him coming out of the tunnel at the Emirates after he signed,” Sallis says. “I don’t think I’ve seen him look so happy.
“It really was a beautiful moment, him thinking: bloody hell, I’ve made it to the club I support.”