Michael Olise, France's new magician, is the heart of their World Cup dreams
· Yahoo Sports
EAST RUTHERFORD, N.J. — Michael Olise is a magician and France has a new hero as he put on a show in New York City on Tuesday.
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Olise drifted around the pitch and looked totally at one with the ball as France dismantled Sweden to reach the last 16 of the 2026 men's World Cup.
It was the kind of display you dream about seeing live. He was playing a different game.
Olise hit the post with an incredible flying overhead kick in the first half, which would have been one of the all-time great World Cup goals. He set up Bradley Barcola for France's second goal with a sumptuous nutmeg. Then he set up Kylian Mbappe for France's third with a perfectly weighted pass to take out the entire Swedish defense. He went close to scoring himself on several occasions too.
Olise was everywhere. Like a true magician he just pops up out of nowhere and creates things to make people gasp in delight. The fans in the heat of New Jersey did that often when Olise was on the ball.
All of the best playmakers make it look effortless. Olise seems unbothered by anything and he's the crucial new heartbeat of France's already stacked attack. He has five assists in their opening four games of the World Cup.
Mbappe, Barcola, Desire Doue and Ousmane Dembele are scoring the goals, but watch what Olise is doing. He's at the heart of it all, orchestrating attack after attack, starting in the middle but drifting out to either flank with such nonchalance. His movement is effortless. His touch is deadly.
"The new piece of having Michael Olise in the team is like the new heart of France. He’s playing as a number 10 and playing super well. So even Rayan Cherki can’t get in because Olise is too good," France fan Hugo Reich said, with a smile.
Former French captain and World Cup winner, Patrick Vieira, managed Olise at Crystal Palace and labelled him a "future Ballon d'Or winner" at half time of this game.
But Olise's star role for France is a relatively new one. He didn't play at the last World Cup in Qatar in 2022. In fact, he didn't make his debut for France until after the European Championships in 2024.
But he's never looked back.
Five years ago Olise was playing in England's second tier for Reading. He then signed for Crystal Palace and became a very good player in the Premier League and signed, surprisingly, for Bayern Munich in 2024.
He has dazzled in his first two years in Germany, winning the Bundesliga player of the season in 2025-26, and Real Madrid had to publicly deny their interest in signing him this summer as reports swirled about his future.
Olise is shy, reserved and rarely speaks much in interviews. He just cares about football. His focus is clearly in the right place.
Born in London to a Franco-Algerian mother and a Nigerian father, Olise could have played for four different countries. But he always wanted to play for France.
He had to wait his time to become a regular for France but now France, even with all of their wonderful world-class forwards, can't function anywhere near as well without Olise.
When we look back at the story of this World Cup we will most likely remember how good this France side was, probably en-route to winning it all, and marvel about Kylian Mbappe's goalscoring records.
But what we should really remember is the magician pulling the strings to make this French attack purr.
Over the last two years Olise has come from nowhere to be France's heartbeat and the key to their hopes of World Cup glory.