Tax issue rules out Wilfried Zaha's Crystal Palace return despite Premier League interest

Wilfried Zaha’s return to the Premier League has been all-but ruled out due to tax issues.

Crystal Palace and Leicester had both discussed possible season-long loan deals for Zaha, but in both cases a solution that worked for all parties could not be found.

Leicester have since signed Zaha’s former Palace teammate Jordan Ayew for that position.

Palace chairman Steve Parish gave an interview to talkSPORT this month in which he revealed that a loan deal for Zaha was not possible this summer despite admitting he would re-sign the Ivorian “in a heartbeat”.

Zaha was able to fulfil a career target last season, playing in the Champions League for the first time in his career after joining Galatasaray for free last summer upon the expiry of his contract at Palace.

But he has since fallen out of favour for last season’s Turkish Super Lig champions and did not feature in last night’s Champions League play-off defeat to Young Boys of Switzerland.

Standard Sport has now been informed that Zaha is unlikely to return to English football this season due to UK tax rules for those who have left the UK to work abroad for five or fewer years. A loan move to England at this stage would make Zaha liable to pay income tax in both the UK and Turkey.

Tax residence rules also prevented Jordan Henderson’s intended return to the Premier League in January, when he instead left Saudi side Al-Ettifaq to join Ajax.

Zaha, 31, joined Crystal Palace’s academy in 2004 and scored 90 goals in 458 senior appearances between 2010 and 2023, during which time he also spent a year and a half at Manchester United between 2013 and 2015 and spent half a season on loan at Cardiff in 2014.