Mohammed Kudus is yet to score for Tottenham Hotspur but when he does, he will be able to use his trademark celebration after his wooden elephant seat was returned to him by former club West Ham United.
On Saturday, the 25-year-old winger made his first return to the London Stadium since his £55million ($74.5m) summer switch.
The Ghana international received a hostile reception and was booed by home fans throughout West Ham’s 3-0 defeat. Given the animosity surrounding his departure, a ball boy in the lower tier of the Bobby Moore Stand opted not to give Kudus the match ball before he took a corner.
The attacker featured heavily in Tottenham’s attack missed a chance in the latter stages to open his account. Post-match, Kudus had a brief catch up with West Ham’s non-playing staff.
Near the family enclosure area, he was given his wooden stool and duly thanked them. Kudus, who joined West Ham from Ajax £38m in 2023, scored 19 goals across 80 appearances during his two-year spell.
In 2023, the former Ajax playmaker adopted his trademark celebration. He would initially sit on on the perimeter boards, then the stool used by ball boys and stewards but he revealed his prized item in the 1-1 draw against Brighton & Hove Albion.
“It’s a special stool, a stool from Ghana,” Kudus explained to West Ham’s social media page. “With my celebration, I see a lot of competitors and people doing it so I thought, ‘Why not do something different?’
“It’s my roots. Where I come from, the chiefs and the kings, they sit on stools where are they are from. So I thought it would be nice to share a little bit of life where I am from.
“As you know there’s a lot of people sitting on the boards now and there’s a lot of conversations about it. This is mine now and no one (else) can do it!”
(Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)