Never one to conform to the expectations of a professional footballer, former Tottenham Hotspur defender Benoit Assou-Ekotto has taken an equally unconventional approach to life after retirement.
After spending eight years away from the game, he’s found a new purpose helping others navigate personal and emotional difficulties through his own therapy practice. While many former players look to remain connected to the sport that defined their careers, Assou-Ekotto has taken a very different route.
He joined Spurs in 2006 and went on to become a first-team regular. After more than 200 appearances for the club, he returned to France for stints with Saint-Etienne and then Metz. He called time on his playing career in 2018.
That, though, barely scratches the surface of his relationship with football and his fascinating second act upon retirement.
After his final match as a player, Assou-Ekotto was done with the spotlight. “I really wanted to disconnect after my career,” he explained to Cameroon’s CRTV. “I spent eight years dedicating myself to my family and resting.”
Now, in his next step, he’s looking to help others as a therapist. “Recently, I opened my own practice. I am a therapist in supportive counselling. Essentially, I accompany people through listening and dialogue to help them overcome personal or emotional difficulties.”
It is something of a total reinvention, with very little ties to his past career. But in a lot of ways, that’s very on brand for a man who candidly admitted he only ever saw football as a job.
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Whereas many footballers look to remain connected with the game that has defined their lives upon retirement, whether through coaching, punditry, management or media work, it’s hardly surprising that Benoit Assou-Ekotto chose a different path.
He told The Guardian back in 2010 that financial security was always the driving force in pursuing a career in football. “If I play football with my friends back in France, I can love football,” he explained. “But if I come to England, where I knew nobody and I didn’t speak English… why did I come here? For a job.”
He was quick to clarify that he didn’t hate football. It simply wasn’t his passion.
Of course, he never shied away from the demands of the job. He was a professional when it came to matches and training. But once the day was done, that was that. “When I am at work, I do my job 100%,” he said. “But after, I am like a tourist in London. I have my Oyster card and I take the tube. I eat.”
He had little interest in the celebrity that came with being a Premier League footballer. Even his teammates were colleagues, rarely people he would contact outside of training.
It’s little wonder, then, that he became one of the most fascinating characters in the Premier League and a cult hero in North London.
Hot chocolate and croissants
Assou-Ekotto was part of the Harry Redknapp team that qualified for the Champions League, playing with the likes of Gareth Bale, Luka Modric and Rafael van der Vaart, but it still did very little to spark a burning love of the game.
“He would tell us straight out that he had no interest in football whatsoever,” revealed Peter Crouch, writing in the Daily Mail. “He could name four or five players who were household names from the Premier League, but other than that he didn’t have a clue who was who.”
Whereas the Tottenham squad would turn up for pre-match meals, loading up on pasta and eggs, Assou-Ekotto favoured a different approach. “He would turn up […] with a hot chocolate and a croissant,” said Crouch.
Despite his pragmatic attitude towards the game, he was also keen to challenge the suggestion that money was his only motivation. “What sort of mercenary stays for seven years?” he asked when discussing his loyalty to Tottenham.
Assou-Ekotto found a new purpose as a therapist
After leaving Spurs, there was a reunion with Harry Redknapp at Queens Park Rangers, plus seasons with Saint-Étienne and Metz.
When Assou-Ekotto eventually retired in 2018, he was ready to cut ties with the game that had occupied so much of his life.
He ruled out punditry, noting it would have required him to keep following football on a regular basis. He didn’t want to do that.
Instead, he was able to return home and spend time with his loved ones, completely disconnecting from what had come before. And, it was all made possible because of the financial security he’d built up.
“I made this choice to earn a living,” he reflected. “The most important thing was that I was able to save money, invest, and allow myself not to work today and to provide for my family.”
Now, he’s forging a new path as a therapist, seeing his work as complementary to clinical psychology. Through listening and dialogue, he wants to help people develop their own resources and find their way through difficult circumstances.
It’s the latest chapter for someone who has always forged his own path. Football gave Benoit Assou-Ekotto the financial freedom to step away from the game, but his definition of success was never confined to what he achieved on the pitch.
“The most important thing is to succeed in life,” he reflected. “Not in your career.”