How Late Stephen Keshi Influenced Me To Choose Nigeria - Ekong

How Late Stephen Keshi Influenced Me To Choose Nigeria - Ekong

Sampson Adedeji

The assistant captain of Nigeria's Super Eagles, William Troost Ekong, has explained how late Stephen Keshi influenced him to pick Nigeria ahead of the Netherlands, BSNSports.com.ng reports.

The former Bursaspor defender was born in Harlem and eligible to represent the Orange, but the phone call from Keshi eventually changed the scenario.

" I had the decision quite early in my career. I was 20 at the time; I just finished my breakthrough season in the Netherlands, the first year of playing probably 30-plus games in the Eredivisie, which is the highest league in the Netherlands.

"And all of a sudden I got a phone call from Stephen Keshi, who was the coach at the time, ex-captain and ex-player, so I was quite blown away when he called me.

 “Just at the start of the season, I had played for the Dutch U19 and U20 squads, but there was no real perspective yet for the first team.

 “This was the only tangible option that I had. The choice was between trying to progress and later in my career maybe having a chance to play for the Netherlands or have a chance now to play for the Super Eagles who were kind of going through a transition stage where a lot of their defenders at that time were a little bit older, so I knew that they wanted to make some changes there.

" And taking that opportunity, which then in turn would give me more perspective for my club, so I kind of made that decision thinking about all those things", he told the Sports After Party podcast.