On Friday evening, a short clip made its way around social media. 

It was a young man, hood up, riding around Times Square on a scooter. Few people noticed who it was, but the man weaving through New York’s iconic landmark would scoop the Golden Ball Award for the best player of this summer’s Club World Cup barely 48 hours later. 

Cole Palmer cannot help being a normal 23-year-old who just wants to play football, but given the manner in which he dominated the final against the European champions Paris Saint-Germain he might have to accept that he is rapidly becoming one of the game’s superstars.

Anyone lucky enough to watch a post-match interview with him will know he does not seek the limelight with his words — he would rather his feet do the talking. He might shy away from attention off the pitch, but the juxtaposition lies in the fact that the very face under the hood was plastered across billboards within the epicentre of New York.

“Scary good” was the title that sat above Palmer’s name on the billboard, and it proved to be prophetic of the 23-year-old’s performance in Sunday’s Club World Cup final. Much like he did on two wheels in a crowd of tourists, Palmer was able to wriggle through bodies and find space against PSG’s defence as he almost single-handedly dispatched the French side before half-time.

Having played on the left of Chelsea’s attack and as a drifting No 10 this summer, Palmer started on the right flank as Enzo Maresca looked to expose a chink in the armour of Luis Enrique’s side.

The selfless running of striker Joao Pedro and Malo Gusto was integral to Palmer’s punishing performance — either running in behind to create space or pushing to that flank to ensure there were bodies around him.

“We used Cole and Malo to create an overload in that area,” Maresca said after the game. “It was just the game plan, and we try to get the players in positions where they can do everything. It worked quite well.”

Gusto’s runs were being consistently found by goalkeeper Robert Sanchez, with Palmer on hand to receive any cutbacks, just as he did excellently for Chelsea’s first goal. His second was a near carbon-copy of the first in terms of shot selection — and very similar to his quarter-final finish against Palmeiras — but this time it was Palmer running in behind himself to stretch PSG’s back line on the counter-attack.

Chelsea’s No 10 will get the credit, but note the selfless overlapping run from Joao Pedro to create tension in Vitinha’s mind.

An extra half-a-beat allowed Palmer to sit centre-back Lucas Beraldo down before passing into the bottom corner with ice in his veins. Power is less of a priority when you have such an accurate technique to direct the ball through the eye of a needle.

For Chelsea’s third, Palmer’s assist was just as special as his two finishes, as he picked up the ball in his own half before driving forward to thread Joao Pedro through with a perfectly-weighted pass.

It speaks to his intelligence to drop in and find the space, but the dovetailed runs of Palmer and Gusto were particularly impressive, as one comes short and the other goes forward. With PSG’s Khvicha Kvaratskhelia not tracking back, left-back Nuno Mendes is forced to follow Gusto’s run, which provides Palmer with the space to run at the back line.

Note Mendes’s fury towards his team-mate below, as he knows that danger is imminent.

Such an impressive individual performance was reminiscent of Chelsea’s recent Europa Conference League final victory against Real Betis, where Palmer took matters into his own hands to assist two goals in the second half and scoop another player of the match award.

That now makes it seven goal contributions in the six finals that he has played, but his performance was so much more than the two goals and one assist Sunday. As shown in The Athletic’s player dashboard, no player made more progressive carries on the day, and no one was more involved in attacking sequences than Palmer. He was truly worthy of his player of the match award.

Did he lap up the attention in the aftermath?

Briefly, as he was obliged to accept his match and tournament awards — but it was clear from Palmer’s unassuming nature that he was more comfortable having a quick kickabout on a confetti-strewn pitch with some of the squad’s young family members. 

Whether it is Nuno Mendes or a team-mate’s son, it does not matter. It is all fun and games when Palmer has a ball at his feet.

It is great to see Palmer hit the headlines for his positive performances after recently admitting he has struggled on and off the pitch in recent months.

Having gone 18 games without scoring a goal for club or country this year, the scrutiny on the 23-year-old was building — largely as a consequence of the unsustainable attacking output he was posting since he arrived at Stamford Bridge.

A glance at the underlying numbers would have told you that the process had never left him in those barren moments. In the Premier League, no one was more involved in Chelsea’s attacking sequences — via shots, chances created, or a pass within a shot-ending sequence — than Palmer across the whole of 2024-25.

Despite the confusion over his attacking form, his 0.38 non-penalty expected goals (xG) per 90 minutes were identical across his two seasons in West London. Sometimes the output does not match the underlying process, but perspective is crucial — as he outlined himself in an interview with Sky Sports in May.

He is yet to be the talisman for his country in the same way he is for his club, but manager Thomas Tuchel would be foolish not to find a place for the 23-year-old in the starting XI alongside Jude Bellingham, as England’s chief artists. 

If Palmer carries this summer’s form into the new Premier League season, he might need more than a hood to hide him from adoring fans when he next returns to the United States.

(Carmen Mandato – FIFA/FIFA via Getty Images)