A hat-trick in the Under-17 European Championships final catapulted Edouard into French consciousness. Coming through the Academy at Paris Saint-Germain, he had the benefit of learning from some of the game’s very best. Edinson Cavani and Zlatan Ibrahimovic would stop to offer him advice.
Soon it was out of the frying pan and into the fire. Fancy levelling up the intensity from France’s best football club? Try the Old Firm on for size. Edouard arrived at Celtic and was thrust into Glaswegian life. There aren’t many 19-year-olds that need to grasp the basics of a centuries old religious conflict to understand their local rivalry – taught in an unfamiliar language, spoken with an even less familiar accent.
Even now, having settled in south London and become accustomed to life in the capital, Edouard looks back on those fiery Old Firm encounters with a sense of pride. “The derby is so big because the rivalry is from a long time ago,” he says. “There is a different atmosphere around the derby.”
It’s why, when Palace face Brighton & Hove Albion – fear not, he knows it’s a ‘rivalry’ and not a ‘derby’ – the centre-forward is determined that he and his teammates will leave it all on the pitch; it will be sweat, blood and tears.
“We feel more pressure in this game, because it is a game you can’t lose,” Edouard explains. “You can do what you want, but you cannot lose.
"That is the pressure. I like this pressure. I had to deal with this pressure at Celtic, but it is good because you give more.
“I know what this [kind of game] means for the fans. We have to give everything in this game – to be at 100%, or more like 200% or 300% to try to win this game. We have to try to win this game for the fans.”
