William Troost-Ekong almost missed out on the 34th Africa Cup of Nations. The central defender and captain of Nigeria, unfortunate finalists, wanted to retire from international football before the Ivorian event.
After losing the final to Côte d'Ivoire (1-2) at the Africa Cup of Nations, William Troost-Ekong was voted "Best Player" of the tournament. At the age of 30, he still has plenty left to play for the Super Eagles. Yet Troost-Ekong almost missed out on the last AFCON 2023. Had he not followed the advice of team-mates Alex Iwobi and Leon Balogun. To everyone's surprise, the PAOK (Greece) player was included in Jose Peseiro's final list.Troost-Ekong had been out of the national team for over a year.
And to show that he remains a valuable defender, Troost-Ekong scored 3 goals in this competition, with the armband around his arm. He was a born leader. During the tournament in Côte d'Ivoire, he was the linchpin of a Super Eagles defense that managed 4 clean sheets before conceding a 90th-minute goal in the semi-final against South Africa.
71 caps, 7 goals, 6124 minutes of playing time
The author of a superb AFCON, Troost-Ekong revealed in an interview with CNN World Sport that he had had conversations with team-mates Alex Iwobi and Leon Balogun. Troost-Ekong added that his discussions with his Nigerian teammates had led him to reconsider his position regarding his future with the Super Eagles.
Troost-Ekong joined the national team in 2015 and has 71 caps to his name (7 goals). To date, he has played 3 World Cup matches, 24 friendlies, 16 African Cup of Nations matches, 13 World Cup qualifiers and 14 African Cup of Nations qualifiers.
