Benoit Assou-Ekotto has revealed that he rejected Arsenal’s advances in favour of a move to Tottenham since the Gunners had a policy of staying at a hotel the day before their games.
Assou-Ekotto first rose to the limelight at Lens and was signed by Tottenham in the summer of 2006 after an impressive couple of seasons with the Ligue 1 side.
However, the left-back struggled to get game time during his first two seasons at White Hart Lane, partly down to his injury owes and only became a regular in the side after Harry Redknapp arrived through the door a couple of months into the 2008-09 season.
The Cameroon international did not look back after that, going on to make 155 appearances for the Lilywhites and making the left-back spot his own until a young and dynamic Danny Rose took his place in the side.
Assou-Ekotto chose Tottenham over Arsenal
Assou-Ekotto was certainly not your average footballer, even famously telling The Guardian back in 2010 that he did not enjoy professional football and only played the sport for money.
The 40-year-old has now given a strange reason why he signed for Tottenham in the first place, revealing that it was because the club did not have a policy of staying at a hotel before matches.
The former Spurs man told YouTube show Carton Jaune (as relayed by Sport Witness): “Do you know why I didn’t sign for Arsenal? I asked my agent: ‘Do they go to the hotel before matches?’ He said yes, they do. I said ‘I’m not going there. I want to have a life, not live in a hotel’.
“Then he told me that Tottenham didn’t do that, so I said cool, we’ll go to Tottenham! What’s more, Arsenal were playing in the European Cup, which meant you weren’t at home 4 days a week!”
Spurs Web Opinion
Making it to the highest level of the game is much more difficult than football fans often realise. Most players cannot make it to the Premier League level unless they are completely obsessed with the game and sacrifice everything else to focus on football.
The fact that Assou-Ekotto had a distinguished career at the top level without really liking football and without prioritising the game makes him a huge anomaly and perhaps shows just how naturally gifted the left-back was.