William Troost-Ekong

I polished shoes as a youth player in Tottenham, says Troost-Ekong

Gent defender William Troost Ekong evoked the memories of how he joined Tottenham Hotspur amidst interests for Liverpool and Manchester City, and his experience as a youth player in London.

The Rio 2016 Olympics bronze medallist who started his football career at the White Hart Lane before moving to Dutch side FC Groningen in 2013, could not hide his regular routine of work as a youth player in England - polishing Ledley King, Younes Kaboul and Michael Dawson's shoes.

He explained that Spurs pressed every button to make his transfer possible as they even provided transport for him from school to training sessions once in a week.

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"At Liverpool I went to see yet, but when City did already gone. I had in fact been selected for Tottenham Hotspur. The club did everything to attract me,'' Troost-Ekong told Elf Voetbal.

They flew my mother to London to talk and even wanted to fly to Nigeria to look for my father. When I was there pretty quickly. They came to my school to arrange that I would rather have one day a week to train with older boys, and every day I was with picked up a taxi.

"As youths we had to polish the shoes of the players of the first team. Everyone had that my teammate Harry Kane for example. I was responsible for the shoes of Ledley King, Younès Kaboul and Michael Dawson. Real charts at the time. Shoes I was brushing it off well, thanks to the boarding school. I thought finally be starting ... haha.

"At first I thought to make it nice, but over time it became annoying. Because you would do it every day, only to go home when you brush the shoes had put in their lockers.

''If it was not good enough, you would be told to get the equipment manager. At Christmas, you ever received an envelope from the player whose shoes you had polished. As a thank you."

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