As Super Eagles vice captain William Troost Ekong turns 27 today , thedabigal takes a look at how his career took a turn for the good following advice ex Dutch superstar Rafael Van der Vaart.
Ekong spent the formative years of his career at English Premier League side Tottenham Hotspur at about same time when Van der Vaart was viewed as the star of the team.
According to the Dutch football ace Ekong trained with the first team at Spurs as a youth player but at a point he told the then 18 years old to return to the Netherlands if he want to make headway in his career .
While working as a television analyst during the 2018 World Cup, Van der Vaart explained how he in a way shaped the defenders career “ Ekong trained with the first team when I was at Spurs. He told me he was from the Netherlands. I advised him to go back and it was good for his development. Now he is playing at the World Cup”, he said before Nigeria’s game against Iceland in the group stages of the tournament.
The Udinese defender took the advice and joined Groningen in the Netherlands but couldn’t nail a permanent spot in the first team forcing him to leave on two different loan spells to Dordrecht.
When his contract ran out at Groningen he was allow to leave on a free transfer to Gent of Belgium and just like it was in the Netherlands he was farmed out on loan to Norwegian side FK Haugesund.
He spent 18 months at the club and rose to the point of captain at some point before returning to Gent he still struggle to get himself established as a starter .
A move to Turkey was next on the card but after a year he made a shock move to Udinese of Italy where he has become a mainstay of the team.
