When Nigeria open their Africa Cup of Nations campaign on Sunday against Equatorial Guinea, William Troost-Ekong will be looking for success in two different ways.
First, progress on the pitch — but there is another benefit that would come with any run deep into the knockout stages.
Troost-Ekong, 30, will be wearing a boot made from corn waste, sugarcane, bamboo and other sustainable materials, the first time in a major tournament a footballer has opted for the environmentally conscious choice.
He cites an increased awareness of human-induced climate change and its impact on football, as well as a hope to leave a better future for his three young children, as reasons for his interest.
The centre-back, playing for PAOK in Greece, has 65 caps for Nigeria and his club career has taken in Bursaspor, Udinese, Watford and others. He is one of several players who have put their money into Sokito, the company that makes the “bio-based boots”, in an attempt to make a difference.
“I’m conscious of the platform that we have as footballers,” he tells The Athletic. “It’s also another, non-verbal, way of me displaying what I’m standing for. There’s a lot of hype around Nigeria with everybody talking about the kit, and excitement around this tournament, so I want to use that hype as well.
“This might be my last AFCON. I wanted to use it to get the message across that you can wear a sustainable boot and support a sustainable cause but still have a very nice looking football book that works exactly how it should do.”
He was introduced to Jake Hardy, the founder of Sokito, by his former Bursaspor team-mate John Bostock, who was part of the company’s launch in 2022.
The boot has a suede lining and a tongue made from corn waste. The sole plate is castor beans and the insole is made from sugarcane and bamboo.
But there is likely to be caution, even scepticism, and those ready to knock it down as not being as comfortable or offering the best performance as a result of its environmental credentials. Troost-Ekong, though, believes top players can be convinced to wear them.
“I’ve been very excited because the first boot I wore was comfortable,” he says. “I’m a creature of habit. I’ve played in Nike for a long time so to make that change, I wanted it to be that I wasn’t even thinking about my footwear.
“When you step on the pitch, you don’t want to be thinking about, ‘How am I going to be in it, am I going to slide, am I going to slip, is this comfortable, how’s my touch going to be?’.
“The key thing that we were pushing for was that to say we can use recycled materials and want it to be 100 per cent recyclable but it has to perform the same way as other boots because otherwise it won’t impact the market. Performance stays number one.
“We’ve got some reasonable names in our investment group but we haven’t got anyone who has the stature of Erling Haaland, Victor Osimhen or Harry Kane.
“When I get to wear the boots in training and matches I want to spread the message.”
But it will take time — and it is not straightforward when you are a footballer.
Troost-Ekong admits to still feeling “guilty” about his actions when it comes to the environment and has sought to make decisions to limit his footprint. He has played for nine clubs but has recently opted to fly economy instead of business class, donating money to help olive tree planters introduce more sustainable farming methods in southern Italy to offset the emissions.
“I didn’t educate myself enough,” he says. “I didn’t think about that topic so seriously, and now, partly for selfish reasons because I’ve got three children, but in general for the future and the world as a whole, I had to learn and I realised there are changes we can make.
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“I’ve played all over Africa, which can be unbearably hot. Sometimes, I think the biggest change for me that I’ve seen is away from football. As a young kid, I spent a lot of time in Nigeria and when I come back to play with the national team the air pollution that hits you when you step off the plane in Lagos… it’s something you don’t experience anywhere else in the world.”
He also experienced the searing heat that caused horrific wildfires in Greece last summer.
“It was unbearably hot so we couldn’t train any time during the day because there was just too much. We had to train at 8pm or 9pm.
“In 25 years from now, when my oldest child will be 30, will they be able to enjoy simple things like being able to play football, having useable pitches and not living in air so polluted that you can’t even play outside?”
There is, though, a conflict that comes with participating in AFCON. The tournament is sponsored by fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies, and there was no other way to get to the Ivory Coast other than flying. At what point might his convictions override his career?
It would, he says, be “a bold statement”, but he makes the point that football is his livelihood and he has a family who rely on him. But there is also an argument that the platform is a good one. He wants to use it to engineer change through “player power”.
“We hope this will put pressure on football federations, clubs and owners to make a change. Hopefully, the more players get on board, the more that we can influence football.
“I’m lucky to play in Nigeria with the best player in Africa (Osimhen). I’ve played in other teams with fantastic players and players that have the world at their feet so if we can get players like that on board there will be a message that can spread very quickly. Perhaps then it will be taken seriously.”
(Top photo: Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
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