The Super Eagles captain, William Troost-Ekong, has revealed that a phone call from late coach Stephen Keshi and the prospect of international football at age 21 influenced his decision to represent Nigeria instead of his country

The Al-Kholood defender, speaking on the Sports Afterparty Podcast, explained that the opportunity to play for Nigeria came at a crucial point in his career.

“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,” Troost-Ekong said.

“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 at that time were a little bit older, so I knew that they wanted to make some changes there.”