Michael Olise has made headlines at both Crystal Palace and Bayern Munich for his unique approach to interviews.
The France international is a man of few words, often giving interviewers very little to use by responding with one word answers.
Arguably the most famous of the £50.8m man’s interviews was the one he held after scoring a 94th minute winner against West Ham back in November 2022.
When asked to elaborate on his goal, Olise hilariously said: “Wilf passed me the ball. Shot. Scored.”
Naturally, some initially perceived this as arrogance from the 22-year-old, and Chris Grierson has now shared how the Crystal Palace media team acted to quash this suggestion before it became a widespread belief.
Chris Grierson on how Crystal Palace helped Michael Olise portray his true self
Speaking on the Winging It podcast, Grierson – who worked as Head of Video and Social Media for Crystal Palace from 2021 to 2024 – said: “We decided the most important thing was not to try and get him to do a good interview, but just to let people know that he’s not a d___.
“So, we just went, okay, we’ll get Ebs to interview him, or Tyrick, and we’ll just put him in to play table tennis. Just put him in situations where you see him chatting and having a laugh, not doing a formal interview, and then everyone goes, see look, he is alright.”
That turned out to be a fantastic decision from Grierson and his colleagues, as the world got to see Olise express his true nature in a more relaxed environment around friends.
Unsurprisingly, accusations of the Bayern Munich No.17 having attitude problems quickly disappeared, which Grierson – who also shared a story about Wilfried Zaha – can take plenty of credit for.
How Michael Olise has performed at Bayern Munich
The man born in Hammersmith has enjoyed a fantastic start to life at Bayern Munich.
In 15 appearances so far this season, Olise has scored seven goals and provided four assists.
Two of those goals came on his UEFA Champions League debut, a 9-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb, while he also picked up his first two caps for France.
Olise is clearly going from strength to strength under Vincent Kompany in Bavaria, and with his immense talent, the sky really is the limit.
