William Troost-Ekong

William Troost-Ekong

Troost-Ekong training with Nigeria in 2015
Personal information
Full name William Paul Troost-Ekong
Date of birth (1993-09-01) 1 September 1993
Place of birth Haarlem, Netherlands
Height 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in)[1]
Playing position Centre back
Club information
Current team
 Gent
Youth career
Fulham
0000–2011 Tottenham Hotspur
Senior career*
Years Team Apps (Gls)
2011–2013 Tottenham Hotspur 0 (0)
2013–2015 FC Groningen 2 (0)
2014–2015 → FC Dordrecht (loan) 34 (0)
2015– Gent 0 (0)
2015–2016 → Haugesund (loan) 41 (4)
National team‡
2011 Netherlands U19 1 (0)
2013 Netherlands U20 2 (0)
2016 Nigeria Olympic U23 6 (0)
2015– Nigeria 9 (0)

* Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only and correct as of 20:00, 28 May 2016 (UTC).

‡ National team caps and goals correct as of 10:11, 25 July 2016 (UTC)

William Troost-Ekong (born 1 September 1993) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays for Gent, as a centre back.

Born in the Netherlands, he represents Nigeria at international level.

Club career

After playing football at youth level in England for Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur,[2] Troost-Ekong began his senior career in the Netherlands with FC Groningen and FC Dordrecht.[1][3]

After being linked abroad with transfers to Celtic among others,[2] he signed for Belgian club KAA Gent in July 2015, immediately joining Norwegian club FK Haugesund on loan.[4] He made his debut appearance for the club on the 31st of July, in a 1-0 win over local rivals Viking FK. At the beginning of the 2016 season he was awarded club captaincy for the remainder of his loan. Troost-Ekong scored his first career goal against Aalesunds FK on the 19th March 2016. After receiving praise throughout the season for performances against champions Rosenborg among others, he led his side to 4th place and UEFA Europa League 1st round qualification, their best finish since 2013 and an 8-place improvement upon the previous season. At the end of the 2016 season, he was named in TV 2 Sporten's team of the season, and was ranked by WhoScored.com as the 3rd best performer all season in the Tippeligaen statistically. In November he returned back to Gent.

International career

Troost-Ekong was born in the Netherlands to a Nigerian father, and Dutch mother. He represented the Netherlands at under-19 and under-20 youth levels.[2]

He made his senior international debut for Nigeria on the 13th of June 2015, playing 90 minutes in an AFCON qualifier against Chad.[5]

He made 3 starts for the senior team in 2016 before being selected by Nigeria's under-23 team in their 35-man provisional squad for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics,[6] where he played every minute possible and went on to win Bronze. He was subsequently called up by new Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr for Nigeria's 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.

References

  1. 1 2 William Troost-Ekong profile at Soccerway. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  2. 1 2 3 "Celtic eye Groningen defender William Troost-Ekong". The Scotsman. 12 March 2015. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  3. ↑ "Profile" (in Dutch). Voetbal International. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  4. ↑ Oluwashina Okeleji (28 July 2015). "Nigerian defender William Troost-Ekong joins Gent". BBC Sport. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  5. ↑ "William Troost-Ekong". National Football Teams. Retrieved 28 July 2015.
  6. ↑ Oluwashina Okeleji (24 June 2016). "Kelechi Iheanacho included in Nigeria's Olympics squad". BBC Sport. Retrieved 25 June 2016.
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