'It's been a big journey and I'm still on it now'

William Troost-Ekong on teaming up with Maro Itoje and setting up a foundation to give back in Nigeria

- Ed Aarons

When William Troost-Ekong wanted to set up his own foundation, there was only one place it could be located.

Having first visited his father’s home town of Uyo in Akwa Ibom state as a child, the Nigeria captain was given a particularly special welcome when he returned last summer for a charity tournament he had organised.

“My surname, Ekong, really resonates with them because it’s from a very specific place,” says the former Watford defender, who plays for Al-Kholood in Saudi Arabia, the eighth country he has lived in during a career that began in Tottenham’s academy after he attended a state boarding school in Hertfordshire.

“I had a chance to visit my late grandparents’ house where they still had loads of pictures of us from when we were kids. The last time I was there, I was about four years old, so to get back there again and to now have a better understanding of what that actually means was something really special. You connect with that in a deeper way.”

The Troost-Ekong Foundation, established after he was named player of the tournament at the Africa Cup of Nations in Ivory Coast last year, has been supporting local orphanages and provided equipment to help local children return to education and resources for a group of under-15 teams in the region.

“We would love to have one representative team from the state that can also play different tournaments within Nigeria, and hopefully maybe even abroad, to see if we can get some exposure for those kids,” says Troost-Ekong, who received the philanthropy and humanitarian award at the Nigerian Sports Awards last month for his foundation’s work.