William Troost-Ekong

William Troost-Ekong (born 1 September 1993) is a Nigerian professional footballer who plays for Gent, as a centre back.

Born in the Netherlands, he represents Nigeria at international level.

After playing football at youth level in England for Fulham and Tottenham Hotspur, Troost-Ekong began his senior career in the Netherlands with FC Groningen and FC Dordrecht.

After being linked abroad with transfers to Celtic among others, he signed for Belgian club KAA Gent in July 2015, immediately joining Norwegian club FK Haugesund on loan. He made his debut appearance for the club on the 31st of July, in a 1-0 win over local rivals Viking FK. At the beginning of the 2016 season he was awarded club captaincy for the remainder of his loan. Troost-Ekong scored his first career goal against Aalesunds FK on the 19th March 2016. After receiving praise throughout the season for performances against champions Rosenborg among others, he led his side to 4th place and UEFA Europa League 1st round qualification, their best finish since 2013 and an 8-place improvement upon the previous season. At the end of the 2016 season, he was named in TV 2 Sporten's team of the season, and was ranked by WhoScored.com as the 3rd best performer all season in the Tippeligaen statistically. In November he returned to Gent.

Troost-Ekong was born in the Netherlands to a Nigerian father, and Dutch mother. He represented the Netherlands at under-19 and under-20 youth levels.

He made his senior international debut for Nigeria on 13 June 2015, playing 90 minutes in an AFCON qualifier against Chad.

He made 3 starts for the senior team in 2016 before being selected by Nigeria's under-23 team in their 35-man provisional squad for the Rio 2016 Summer Olympics, where he played every minute possible and went on to win Bronze. He was subsequently called up by new Nigeria head coach Gernot Rohr for Nigeria's 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying campaign.