Turkish champions set to sign ‘unbelievable star’ who was tipped to stay at Crystal Palace

Turkish champions Galatasaray have beaten off competition and are now close to confirming former Crystal Palace forward Wilfried Zaha as their new signing.

The Ivory Coast international has been taking time to decide his next move with the Eagles reportedly offering him a staggering £200k-a-week wage to try to get him to stay at the club.

Palace had made moves to convince him to stay so they could put up a statue for him at the end of his playing career and the fact that he was training at the club’s base strengthened belief that he would be at the club beyond this season.

But a tweet by Galatasaray, who will be in the Champions League this season, confirmed “formal negotiations have been initiated” with the player.

Zaha himself then took to Instagram to confirm he was on the way to Istanbul to sign the deal before later sending emotional goodbye messages to the Eagle fans.

The 30-year-old  had been linked to Italian club Lazio, the Saudi league’s Al-Nassr and another Turkish team in Fenerbahce but Galatasaray appeared late and stole the show that has left Palace now needing to respond especially with Chelsea also looking to sign forward Michael Olise.

Zaha’s exit creates an incredible hole in the team that has never been felt by his scored 90 goals in 458 games for the club, having joined as a 12-year-old. He only left once to Manchester United and had a short loan spell at Cardiff before returning to establish himself as one of the Premier League’s greatest.