Crystal Palace have learned they must match Wilfried Zaha’s wages at Galatasaray if they are to re-sign him on loan this month.
Standard Sport understands Zaha earns around £170,000 per week with the Turkish champions, who are willing to offload him to Palace if financial terms are agreed.
The Ivorian expects to earn the same if he returns to Selhurst Park, with Galatasaray intent on receiving a £9million fee to cover his wages.
Zaha turned down a club-record £200,000-a-week contract offer towards the end of the 2022/23 season, after which he left Palace for Galatasaray as a free agent. Lazio, Al-Nassr and Fenerbahce all offered him free-agent moves at the time too.
It is understood his wages were around £120,000 per week when he left Palace. Galatasaray’s official announcement of Zaha as a signing quoted a wage that suggested they would pay him just £72,000 weekly, but that figure was not understood to include bonuses and does not represent his overall package.
Zaha is considered a club legend by Palace fans, having grown up mere minutes from their Selhurst Park stadium and gone on to score 90 goals in 458 total matches for the club at senior level.
He left to join Manchester United for a year-and-a-half in January 2013 but never felt at home at Old Trafford and returned to the Eagles in the summer of 2015.
After leaving for Galatasaray upon the expiry of his contract last summer, he scored 10 goals and registered five assists in 43 games during his first campaign for the Turkish champions.
Talks between Palace and Galatasaray are ongoing and first began a number of days ago.
Palace have already signed winger Ismaila Sarr in Zaha’s position this summer. The former Watford man joined for £12.7million last month after an indifferent season at Marseille.
Palace are also considering defensive reinforcements such as Trevoh Chalobah of Chelsea and Wolfsburg’s Maxence Lacroix in case a deal materialises to sell England centre-back Marc Guehi amid interest from the likes of Newcastle.
