West Ham's Dmitri Payet Shows Paul Pogba How The Game Is Played.

BY EWAH CHIKA

A year ago a certain Dmitri Payet had not played a single game for France but today he is now a national hero after scoring a winning goal that is mostly associated with his childhood hero Zinedine Zidane. 

Earlier before the tournament, the likes of Paul Pogba and Antoine Griezmann were tipped as the likely heroes for the French national team for the European Championship that started today but like most tournaments it turned out the hero is a player who only left Marseille for West Ham unknown in England a year ago. 

Payet was only drafted into the squad after an impressive season in West Ham which saw him nominated in the Premier League Team of the Year by his colleagues. Even that was not enough as the early debate before the game against Romania centred on who amongst the West Ham playmaker and Manchester United's Anthony Martial deserved to start. 

Even after scoring 9 goals, providing 12 assists and creating 116 total chances in 30 league games the West Ham man was still not rated amongst the best in the French squad as he was pushed from his No.10 favourite position to the right side of attack to make way for Juventus playmaker and tournament favourite Paul Pogba. All that must have changed as the playmaker was the star of the night. 

Payet not only scored the crucial winning goal from 25 yards with his weaker left foot, he provided an assist (Giroud and France's first goal). It did not end there as the player's stat includes : 13 attempted crosses with 4 successful, 8 chances created which is twice as much as the whole French players , and 6 attempted take-on's with 5 successful. 

Payet showed class and elegance as he was the spark of the team , playing layoffs, through  balls and taking set-pieces. As if that wasn't enough the player also showed emotion when he left the field in tears after being subbed in the dying minutes by Didier Deschamps. 

At 29, Payet is in the peak of his career but it should be noted that the Indian Ocean born playmaker had a difficult childhood as he was sacked by Le Havre (the same club that produced the likes of  Lassana Diarra, Riyad Mahrez, Steve Madanda and Paul Pogba) for lack of motivation and troubles after a turbulent four years . This saw him join the likes of AS Excelsior, Nantes, Saint-Etienne, Lille and then Marseille before joining West Ham for £9 million in 2015. 

With the former Marseille player's display at the tournament , West Ham can be rest assured he won't be moving anytime soon as he recently (February) signed an extension at the club which will keep him at the club until 2021.