They call him Mr Nonchalant, on account of his reserved demeanour, but nonchalance simply isn’t the right word to describe Michael Olise. Rarely have appearances been as deceiving as with this London-born France playmaker, who gives the impression of cool indifference but really is among the most obsessive and dedicated professionals in the game.
Those who know Olise say that the 24-year-old, who has been one of the star performers at this World Cup, is totally fixated on self-improvement. The first thing he did when he joined Bayern Munich, in the summer of 2024, was to buy high-tech recovery equipment for his home. He has a tattoo in Japanese of the word “Kaizen”, which is the concept of making continuous, incremental developments each day.
Olise may not worry much about his personal branding off the field, and he has never been particularly interested in media interviews, but make no mistake, this is a man who cares deeply about his craft. Off the pitch, it seems he has little interest in living the life that is expected of the best footballers on the planet. On it, he is as driven as any of them to influence matches and win trophies.
An extension of this attitude is that Olise is extremely conscious of his own statistics, especially his goals and assists. He undoubtedly knows, therefore, that he stands on the brink of a World Cup record this summer. In five matches for France, he has registered five assists. Only Pelé has ever created more goals at a single World Cup, with his six assists in 1970.
For England supporters, and no doubt many within the Football Association, Olise’s brilliance at this World Cup has been galling. This is a man who was born in Hammersmith, raised in Hayes and schooled in English football at the academies of Chelsea, Manchester City and Reading. He is a proper Londoner, who says he feels most at home when in the English capital.
It does not say much for England’s youth recruitment, or indeed the academies of Chelsea and City, that Olise slipped through all of their grasps. In truth, it speaks to a certain level of intolerance within the English game of unusual characters and personalities.
Yes, Olise has always been a little different to the other players in his teams. And yes, his non-conformist behaviour could be a challenge for his coaches to understand. But hindsight has shown it to be a failure of the Premier League’s academy system, and the England set-up, that Olise came through at Reading and now stars for France.
Olise was eligible to play for England, France, Algeria and Nigeria, having been born to a Nigerian father (who played international cricket) and a French-Algerian mother. He chose France, he has said, because it felt more “natural”. In an interview with Highsnobiety, he said: “The players I followed when I was young were French: [Zinedine] Zidane, Thierry Henry, [Franck] Ribéry.”
He spoke French with his mother growing up and would take regular family trips to France as a child. English is very much his first language, and the tongue in which he is most comfortable, but suggestions that he cannot speak or understand French, based on previous media engagements, are simply not true. There is a difference between speaking French with your team-mates and speaking it in press conferences or interviews, especially when the individual concerned is already a reluctant public speaker.
Olise came into this tournament as the Bundesliga player of the season. In all competitions with Bayern last season, he scored 22 goals and registered an astonishing 31 assists. In doing so, he established himself as one of the finest creative talents on the planet – and he has only reinforced that status with his performances at this World Cup, where has largely played in his preferred central role.
It all feels remarkable for a player who, as recently as 2021, was operating in the Championship. But, then again, Olise’s rise will not have come as a surprise to anyone who watched him regularly in England, first at Reading and then at Crystal Palace. The extraordinary talent and vision has always been there. In many ways, it is the quality of the players around him that has changed, rather than Olise himself.
Indeed, another reason Olise preferred the idea of playing for France instead of England was because of the sheer brilliance of the French side. The chances of success are higher with France, who have the outstanding attack at this World Cup. After all, what playmaker would not enjoy lining up behind Kylian Mbappé, Ousmane Dembélé, Bradley Barcola and Désiré Doué? Olise elevates them, and they elevate him.
This was evident, on a smaller scale, during Olise’s three seasons at Palace. The player he combined with most effectively and frequently was Eberechi Eze, the other standout attacking talent in that team. The better the players around Olise, the better Olise becomes. He has shown this at Bayern, too, where he has excelled in attack alongside stars such as Harry Kane and Luis Díaz.
On Thursday, France’s assault on the World Cup continues with a quarter-final against Morocco in Boston. Mbappé will, as ever, be the main point of focus for the watching world. But these days Olise is almost as important to the French cause, and no player will be as determined and driven to win this tournament as him. Nonchalance? Not when it comes to occasions like this.