William Troost-Ekong has explained in detail why he decided to switch his international allegiance from the Netherlands to Nigeria despite the Super Eagles not having the same prestige as the Oranje on the international stage.
Born in Haarlem, the central defender chose to defect from the Netherlands to Nigeria, where his father originally hails from, after a telephone conversation with Super Eagles legend Stephen Keshi, who was coaching the Super Eagles at the time.
Troost-Ekong played in friendly matches for his country of birth at U19 and U20 level before jumping at the opportunity to represent Nigeria following discussions with the late Stephen Keshi.
After a breakout season at Dordrecht, the dual-national player made his debut in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifying match against Chad in June 2015.
The Tottenham Hotspur academy product was a key player for Nigeria at the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations, walking away with the TotalEnergies Best Player award and was named in the Team of the Tournament.
Troost-Ekong also featured at the 2018 World Cup in Russia and the 2019 and 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
When asked to reveal why he chose the Nigeria route instead of the Netherlands, Troost-Ekong said on the latest episode of The Sports Afterparty Podcast uploaded to YouTube on November 10: “I had the decision quite early in my career. I was 20 at the time, I just finished my breakthrough season in the Netherlands, first year of playing probably 30 plus games (22 games, ed) 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 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.
“When I had that call, it wasn’t necessarily maybe in the same boat when you talk about Olise from Bayern Munich for example when he chose to play for France and he could have played for Nigeria, Algeria, England. He had all those options there on the table for him.
“This was the only tangible option that I had. The choice was between trying to progress and later in my career maybe have 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 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.
“I said yes very quickly because I thought if I can have a chance to become an international at 21 years old I probably have a good chance of making a career after if I do well.”
Troost-Ekong has underlined that his situation was not a carbon copy of what happened with Victor Moses and Alex Iwobi, who were both born in Nigeria and played for England at youth level before switching their allegiance to the Super Eagles.
“That was not the kind of decision I had to make and it was not the same as maybe Victor Moses or Alex Iwobi, players that were more established already and would have the choice playing for England.
‘There are so many rewards playing for Nigeria, not only from game perspective. It means so much playing for the Super Eagles when you are a Nigerian even if you’re born outside the country, because the people love football so much.
“It’s a different feeling if you play for the Netherlands or England than if you play for Nigeria. If you see how they carry the players when the team does well, there’s no feeling like it and all the greatest moments I’ve had in my career to date have all been around the Nigeria national teams.
“That has been my choice and it has put me in this position where I’ve enjoyed the career I’ve had so far really.”
Troost-Ekong has scored seven goals in 74 international appearances for Nigeria and is in contention to add to his caps on Thursday when the Super Eagles do battle with Benin in an Africa Cup of Nations qualifier in Abidjan.
Ifeanyi Emmanuel @All Nigeria Soccer
