Super Eagles defender, William Troost-Ekong has revealed how his mother wept when she was told by Tottenham youth coach, Matt de that he would never make it as a footballer.
Ekong, who is expected to be in the Super Eagles line up against Cape Verde in today’s 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers at the Teslim Balogun Stadium, told Baller Talk’s Femi Ilesanmi, James Alabi and Doe E that the news got his mum upset.
The Watford defender said that those degrading words from the coach helped him become what he is today.
“I remember one time he had a meeting with my mom, I think it was after my first year as a scholar and he was like I’m going to be really honest to my mom. Will’s miles off it and at this rate I can’t see him playing even non-league football, League Two, League One.
“I felt like crying and I remember seeing my mom , my mom was upset, I’ve never seen her like that because she backed me against my dad’s will to sign for Spurs at the time.
“I came to England originally to go to school, I went to boarding school which is thoughtful, so was already like a big deal that she did that for me, and then all of a sudden after one year, she’s hearing like this is not really working out so that was the biggest motivation.
“From that moment on, I was like Will you need to sort yourself out and that was the chip on my shoulder every time to be like I am going to show everyone, I’m going to show everyone.”
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COMMENTS
From being considered inadequate as a footballer to SE vice captain.
The coach that made that comment, I wonder how he reacts when he sees Union Troost playing in the Premier League, and donning the Nigeria jersey.
He was totally wrong in his assessment.
Union Troost Ekong has his faults and weaknesses. But he’s a decent center back.
You are right he has his weakness n fault but he is a decent defender,and I quote he is just an average defender n shouldn’t be a stater for SE he is not among d class of beast like defender SE use to have I mean no disrespect bro but d truth be told if the coach had considered you at Tottenham then n u graduate to their first team u won’t even consider playing for SE next thing we will hear is I grew up here n feel more like this,our top n reliable stars at SE now are all home grown talents that alone tells us that d next okocha n kanu are some where in secondary school waiting to be discovered
God bless Nigeria
Yea @ Pompei.That youth coach is like Jimmyball,Omo9ja and their cohorts in our world today.They never see anything good in anybody,all they crave for is for u to make a blunder so that they can pounce on you.They lack vision, foresight, intelligence and even grace.
How on earth will anyone see Okoye and say he’s not Super Eagles material? I consider that extreme madness and highest level of narrowmindedness.Just like Ekong and that youth coach,no sooner than Jimmyball and co said Okoye was good for nothing the big news of his transfer to Almighty EPL broke out.Watford management like Rohr must also be wrong for scouting Okoye and buying him.The next thing u will see is that Man United will come calling, maybe,after 2 seasons, cos that guy is very good.
You see people like that youth coach and Jimmyball plus his team of bigots don’t amount to anything in life.Because they don’t wish anyone well,they also don’t see goodness.No be curse oooo, they work and don’t make ends meet.But while they go down those they criticise will keep going up.
Omo9ja,kept criticising Keshi until his death,even after he won the nation’s cup he never stopped.That is what I call madness. Go to omo9jas home u will see that he’s a junk,yes that is what it will be, cos to them, there is no goodness anywhere.
I thank God for u Ekong,may God continually favour u.
God bless you my brother
Emmanuel, don’t mind dem.
Ekong should continue to prove to these people that he is not as bad as they say he is.
When Ekong scored our winning goal against South Africa in the 2019 Afcon, these people gnashed their teeth and became dejected.
If they like, they can chew mosquito coil and wash it down with rat poison. I don’t advise them to do this, but if they chose to do so, na dem sabi.
Constructive criticism is always welcome. But to say a premier league defender is not good, haba. Make una take am easy now? From playing in Norway, the boy rose thru the ranks, exceling everywhere he went. Now he is playing in the premier league. He has served Nigeria reasonably well. Yet some people are stuck on “he is not good”.
Like a broken record that keeps repeating itself.
Ekong is a good defender and it was clearly a mistake for the spurs youth coach to be so categorical in his assessment. Man is never God – we’re not omniscient; even though Ekong probably needed that judgement as the fuel to take his career to the hight he’s taken it. He an Olympic medalist, Nations Cup bronze winner, has over 50 caps for Nigeria, has played in the world Cup and is playing in the Premier league. He’s also only 28. The guy has tried.
Be that as it may, Ekong wasn’t at his best against Liberia; infant the poor form of our centre backs (particularly Balogun in the first game against CAR) is why Rohr switched to a back 3/5. They’ll really need to up their game for the match today.
I don’t expect anything better coming from Spurs, to be honest. What have they ever won? One memorable FA cup sometimes in the 70s or 80s. I wonder what yardstick he was using to measure Ekong because they had none since the 80s