A FIERY LATINO temperament acquired from his Argentinian mother led Neal Maupay to become one of football’s love-hate characters.

His audacity and impudence – some call it ‘shithousery’– brought smiles to the faces of plenty and fury to others.

From an early age, the diminutive French centre forward thought nothing of tangling with strapping centre backs who towered over him.

And verbal exchanges in the heat of the battle were all part of the game as far as he was concerned.

Few would forget the lockdown clash when Maupay’s nudge on Arsenal ‘keeper Bernd Leno led to a knee injury for the irate Arsenal goalkeeper, nor his running battle with midfielder Matteo Guendouzi, who grabbed Maupay by the throat after the final whistle, the 5’7” striker having scored a late winner against the Gunners to seal the Seagulls’ first win of 2020.

“I have always been like this. I’m a winner, that’s it,” he told The Athletic’s Andy Naylor. “I’m ready to fight, I’m ready to compete, I’m ready to do whatever it takes to win and to help my team to win.”

Referring to the origins of that competitive streak, he said: “With my mum (Liliana) we’ve always had this kind of relationship. She has that fire in her and so do I. Sometimes it just clashes, like mother and son. I’m so happy she gave me that part from her.”

There were other key goals along the way too, of course: memorable late strikes against Crystal Palace Southampton, West Ham and West Brom which raised his popularity amongst Brighton fans.

But there were plenty of misses too, incurring the wrath of certain sections of supporters, particularly during his season at Everton.

It’s not easy to define Maupay or to decide where he fits in the popularity stakes at his various clubs. Well, perhaps, it is easier to say that at Everton he was never seen in a good light.

But at Brighton he had several highs and also plenty of frustrating lows.

“He is a good presser and holder up of the ball,” wrote Ryan Adsett in The Argus in May 2022, in a piece debating why ‘Marmite’ Maupay divided opinion so much.

“Maupay uses his body very well in and out of possession, and is a decent ball carrier too,” said Adsett, suggesting he struggled to adapt to often playing as a lone striker for the Seagulls having scored a lot more for Brentford, the club who brought him to England and partnered him with Ollie Watkins, and who welcomed him back into the fold on loan when it went wrong at Goodison Park.

Scoring 41 goals in 95 games for the west London side in the Championship unsurprisingly endeared him to the Brentford faithful. Interestingly, the Bees love-in may never have happened had Albion acted more decisively when weighing him up as a prospect.

Brentford had wooed him when he was playing Ligue Two football in France, on loan to Brest from Saint Etienne. He scored 12 times in 31 appearances for Brest.

After Brentford first approached him, Maupay also had a conversation at Brighton, who were newly-promoted to the Premier League, and the Bees feared they were going to be gazumped by the Seagulls.

“Luckily, they didn’t quite grasp the fact that all Neal wanted to do was play football,” said Brentford’s head of recruitment, Andy Scott. “They said to him come in pre-season and if you don’t get in the side we’ll send you out on loan.

“It was quite ironic that he ended up going to Brighton from Brentford,” Scott told The Athletic.

Scott was behind Watkins’ £1.8m move from Exeter three days after Brentford bought 20-year-old Maupay for £1.6m in July 2017 to pair them in the Bees attack.

“Neal was just a proper nuisance of a No 9,” he said. “At Brest, he was continually getting into fights and arguments with 6ft 5in centre-halves, smashing goalkeepers, but getting in really good goal scoring positions without getting the ball. He still had a really good work ethic and showed a real desire to want to score goals.”

Scott continued: “I always believed Neal would score goals if you gave him the chances. There is footage of him missing a clear chance, but you listen to all the outstanding goalscorers throughout the years – Tony Cottee, Gary Lineker, Alan Shearer – they didn’t care about missing, they just wanted chances and he is very much like that.”

Referring to that fiery personality, Scott pointed out: “He’s a winner, hates losing, moans like anything about decisions that are made and stomps off, but he’s got a heart of gold.”

Maupay joined Brighton for £16m – ten times what Brentford paid for him! – in August 2019 and he couldn’t have got off to a better start when he scored in the opening day 3-0 win at Watford.

His strike rate for the Seagulls totalled 27 in 109 games and although he could count a number of vital finishes amongst that number, many will remember him for some glaring misses too.

In his first season with Brighton, he told The Athletic’s Andy Naylor: “I feel like I’m still learning and with the work I am putting in every day and a bit more confidence I will only get better.

“I don’t think I’m playing at my best level. Last season I was more clinical. This season I’ve been missing chances that were not easy but doable. Defenders are better, keepers are better and there is more pressure in the Premier League.”

When Maupay netted in another win at Watford – 2-0 on 12 February 2022 – he equalled Glenn Murray’s record of 26 Premier League goals for Brighton and promised to go on to beat it. But he missed a golden chance to do so from the penalty spot in a 0-0 home draw with Norwich City, also hitting the side-netting from close range and steering another effort wide late on.

Subbed off by Graham Potter after the third miss, the striker nonetheless was given a round of applause by the Amex crowd as he trudged round the pitch back to the dugout, a reaction the manager described as “fantastic”.

“A huge thank you to them for that because he gave everything in the game but it just wasn’t his day. That happens but it will be his day another day.”

However, he was dropped for the following two matches when his friend and Belgian international Leandro Trossard stepped up to score in both the 2-1 win at Arsenal and the 1-0 win at Tottenham Hotspur.

Instead of beating Murray’s record, Maupay’s final chance came and went in a 3-1 last game home win over West Ham when all he picked up was a yellow card after going on for the second half in place of Yves Bissouma.

With the arrival of Julio Enciso, Deniz Undav and Kaoru Mitoma for the start of the 2022-23 season, competition for places was hotting up, and Maupay only had a year left on his contract.

A move was inevitable and, having been an unused sub for two of the opening league games of the season, he made a £15m deadline day move to Everton.

“Neal is a player who has proven himself in the Premier League over the past three seasons and he is hungry to hit the ground running with Everton,” said the club’s director of football, Kevin Thelwell.

“We believe he will add an extra dimension to our attack and complements the existing players we have at the top end of the pitch.”

Frank Lampard was in the Everton hotseat at the time and he spoke of Maupay’s blend of dynamic attributes and his tireless work ethic.

“We wanted to strengthen our attacking options and Neal provides a goalscoring threat, as well as bags of energy and a fighting spirit that are vital to what we’re building at the club,” he said.

An enthused Maupay told evertontv: “Everton is a great club with unbelievable fans and I am so, so happy to be here.

“It feels amazing. It was an easy choice for me when I started to talk with the club. I knew straight away I wanted to play for Everton and help the club to succeed.

“I’m excited and it’s a new challenge for me.

“I will do everything I can for Everton. That’s what the fans want – they want players that are ready to give their best, and ready to fight

“When I step on the pitch, I will run, I will tackle, I will try to make assists and score goals. Whatever the team needs, I will do it, because I want to be successful and I want my team to win.”

Born in the Paris suburb of Versailles on 14 August 1996, Maupay was only five when the family moved to the Cote D’Azur in the south of France because of his father’s work.

Within a year, Maupay started playing football at weekends for a small local club, Valbonne Sophia-Antipolis, where he stayed until he was 11.

Ligue 1 side OGC Nice signed him up to their youth academy and he progressed so well that he was given his professional debut against Brest on 15 September 2012, only a month after his 16^th birthday, making him the third youngest player in Ligue 1 history.

Three months later, he became the second youngest ever goalscorer in Ligue 1, netting in the final seconds of a game against struggling Evian.

His promise was also spotted by the international selectors and he gained French caps at under 16, 17, 19 and 21 levels.

But a torn cruciate knee ligament injury aged 16, sustained in a reserve match, held up his progress at Nice and when opportunities under Claude Puel (later Southampton and Leicester manager) were limited, he moved 300 miles to Saint Etienne.

The move was meant to get his career back on track but he was often left out of squads by the coach Christophe Galtier and he told The Athletic’s Naylor: “When you are 19 or 20 it is hard to deal with. I just wanted to play. At that time, I had lost my happiness, my desire to play football. Football is supposed to be fun.”

Fortunately, another manager’s belief in him proved to be a turning point. Jean-Marc Furlan was in charge of Ligue 2 Brest and took the young striker on loan.

“When I arrived there, I was like his son,” he told Naylor. “I was in his office every single day. He was talking to me, calling me, made me realise a lot of things and made me progress on the pitch, off the pitch.”

Goals followed and led to the move to Brentford where fans quickly took to him. For example, Nemone Sariman writing on fan website Beesotted, described the player’s reaction as he walked along a road near their ground after a game.

“He was mobbed by fans as if he were one of the Kardashians, yet his smile was unwavering and he posed for photos with every single one of us who asked.”

Noting Maupay’s restrained celebration after scoring for Brighton in the Boxing Day 2021 2-0 win over Brentford, Sariman added: “However one might feel about Neal as a player, his passion for Brentford is palpable; despite being fearsome on the pitch, he has always treated us with respect, even since leaving us.”

Within less than three weeks of joining Everton, Maupay scored the only goal of the game as the Toffees beat West Ham on 18 September 2022. Alas, it was the only goal he scored for them in 11 starts and 17 appearances off the bench, in particular suffering when Lampard was replaced by Sean Dyche who generally preferred Dominic Calvert-Lewin on his own up front.

After Maupay had secured a loan back to Brentford, he said in an interview with The Times: “It was a really hard year team-wise. People don’t see that. They just go online, check the stats and say ‘You’re rubbish. You’re not worth the shirt’.”

He continued: “We were losing every week, which affects the mood in training, we changed managers and playing styles which wasn’t easy, and the fans were upset because they love the club.

“I can understand that but it’s not like I am trying to miss chances on purpose. I would be on a day off with my kids and people in the park would swear at me like I owe them something because I’m a footballer.

“After the games, fans would smash on the window of the car when my kids were in the back saying, ‘Leave our club’. I understand if you don’t think a player is good, fair enough, but there’s a way to do it.”

When a previously winless-for-seven-games Everton pulled off a remarkable 5-1 win at Brighton on 8 May 2023, Maupay only got on for Calvert-Lewin as an 87^th minute sub.

Back at his spiritual home in west London on loan for the 2023-24 season, Maupay scored eight times as he made 13 starts and 16 appearances as a sub.

At the end of the season, he posted a video on his X account in which he said: “I’m going to miss the club, I can’t lie. It’s a long story for me with Brentford. I came here when I was 20, seven years ago. I was a kid then – I didn’t know too much about the club or English football.

“But here I am, seven years later, in the Premier League. I’ve played a few teams but I’ve never received love like I have here. From day one, people loved and appreciated me. They saw that I was a fighter on the pitch and that I would give everything for the shirt.

“I think that straight away, we had that connection. Honestly, I’m going to miss them.

“The good moments I’ve had during my time here have been absolutely amazing. I wish everyone could experience that because it’s very special.

“I’m not scared about the future. I know whatever comes next, I’ll be ready for it. So, stay tuned and we’ll see…”

As it turned out, Maupay, still officially an Everton player, joined Albion’s Europa League opponents Olympique de Marseille on a season-long loan, playing under the Seagulls’ former boss Roberto De Zerbi.

The player’s antipathy towards his parent club couldn’t have been more stark when, after a recent home defeat for the Toffees to Nottingham Forest, Maupay posted on his X account: “Whenever I’m having a bad day, I just check the Everton score and smile.”