Super Eagles vice-captain William Troost-Ekong announced his international football retirement only a few weeks before the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations would have kicked off by Nigeria in Morocco. The 30-year-old defender was in the 55-man provisional squad, but after thinking it over, he decided to take a step aside since he had earned 83 caps since his debut in 2015.
A few years ago, Troost-Ekong played for the Netherlands U-21 team, but later united with Nigeria, and now he is the one who confirmed in a very touching tone on his social media that he decided to abandon the team. In his statement, he remembered how the late Stephen Keshi gave him his debut, an experience that he said had a big influence on his career with the Super Eagles.
In his International career, Troost-Ekong played five major tournaments with the Super Eagles and has three medals to his name: bronze for the Olympics in Brazil 2016, another bronze at AFCON 2019, and silver at AFCON 2023, where he was also named the best player of the tournament. Besides, he also holds the record for the highest-scoring defender in AFCON history.
He said that holding the Nigerian captain’s armband and winning the confidence of a nation with over 230 million people was the “privilege of a lifetime”. To support the exodus of soccer talent born outside the motherland but loyal to Nigeria, he dedicated the glory to them, along with coaches and teammates, while praising the fans and thanking coaches and teammates.
After his departure, Eric Chelle’s coach will be the one to decide the captaincy of the team for the next matches against Tanzania, Uganda, and Tunisia at the group stage.
