{"id":156515,"date":"2025-03-25T17:44:57","date_gmt":"2025-03-25T16:44:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/uncategorized\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time"},"modified":"2025-04-04T13:20:52","modified_gmt":"2025-04-04T12:20:52","slug":"hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time","title":{"rendered":"He\u2019s my idol for ever \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Troost-Ekong names greatest African defender of all-time"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"color: #ff6600\"><strong>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. <\/strong><\/span>Super Eagles captain, William Troost-Ekong has named late Nigeria legend Stephen Keshi as the greatest African defender of all-time.<\/p>\n<p>Troost-Ekong, who said Keshi is his idol for ever, placed the former Super Eagles coach ahead of a host of illustrious names in Africa.<\/p>\n<p>The former Watford defender was put through an elimination-style game by the Saudi Pro League\u2019s media team, where he had to choose between some of Africa\u2019s most celebrated defenders until only one remained.<\/p>\n<p>The challenge began with a difficult choice between Cameroon legend, Rigobert Song and Ivory Coast great Kolo Toure.<\/p>\n<p>Troost-Ekong opted for Song, a decision that set the tone for a series of difficult calls.<\/p>\n<p>He eventually ended Song\u2019s winning streak when he was pitted against Nigeria\u2019s Taribo West.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Super Eagles captain picked Keshi over West as his greatest African defender of all-time.<\/p>\n<p>Taking to X, Troost-Ekong tweeted about Keshi: \u201cThe \u2018Big Boss\u2019 and my idol forever, who made my dream come true to represent [Nigeria] Stephen Keshi.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>For More News And Analysis About <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Nigeria<\/span> Follow <span style=\"color: #ff6600\">Africa-Press<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Africa-Press &#8211; Nigeria. Super Eagles captain, William Troost-Ekong has named late Nigeria legend Stephen Keshi as the greatest African defender of all-time. Troost-Ekong, who said Keshi is his idol for ever, placed the former Super Eagles coach ahead of a host of illustrious names in Africa. The former Watford defender was put through an elimination-style [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":156514,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,18],"tags":[254,3953],"class_list":["post-156515","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-sport","tag-nigeria","tag-troost-ekong"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.1 (Yoast SEO v27.0) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>He\u2019s my idol for ever \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Troost-Ekong names greatest African defender of all-time - Nigeria<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Super Eagles captain, William Troost-Ekong has named late Nigeria legend Stephen Keshi as the greatest African defender ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"He\u2019s my idol for ever \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Troost-Ekong names greatest African defender of all-time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Super Eagles captain, William Troost-Ekong has named late Nigeria legend Stephen Keshi as the greatest African defender ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Nigeria\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-03-25T16:44:57+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-04-04T12:20:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742912459.789663.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"989\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"684\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"He\u2019s my idol for ever \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Troost-Ekong names greatest African defender of all-time\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-03-25T16:44:57+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-04-04T12:20:52+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time\"},\"wordCount\":196,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sites\/3\/2025\/03\/sm_1742912459.789663.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Nigeria\",\"Troost-Ekong\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"Sport\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/nigeria\/sport\/hes-my-idol-for-ever-nigerias-troost-ekong-names-greatest-african-defender-of-all-time\",\"name\":\"He\u2019s my idol for ever \u2013 Nigeria\u2019s Troost-Ekong names greatest African defender of all-time - 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