Meet the former £40,000-per-week footballer who HATED the sport: Ex-Premier League star rejected transfer to ‘become a pornstar’, ate Tesco meal deals before matches and headbutted his own teammate

The suit jacket and t-shirt combo is a look more commonly associated with musicians and actors of the late 2000s but Benoit Assou-Ekotto wore it better than most when he sat for an interview with GOAL in the summer of 2013. 

The then-Tottenham Hotspur defender had been part of a team, spearheaded by Gareth Bale, that came agonosingly close to achieving Champions League qualification in the previous campaign.

Tottenham had finished no lower than fifth in the four preceding seasons and had just started to shake off their most pejorative tags and the insecurities that come with having a more successful Premier League side in the same city. 

This was a different Spurs. One ready to mix it with Europe’s best. One that did business with Europe’s best. 

So when Assou-Ekotto, starting left back for this fledgling super club, sat, reclined on a cushioned armchair and bearing an uncanny resemblance to rock ‘n’ roll hall-of-famer Lenny Kravitz, and was asked about the Brazilian midfielder Paulinho – Tottenham‘s first signing of the window – his response was jarring, to say the least. 

‘No, I don’t follow this kind of news,’ the Cameroon international replied when asked if he’d ever heard of his new colleague. 

In fairness to Assou-Ekotto, Paulinho was far from a household name. Still, he had been a cornerstone of the Selecao squad that triumphed in the Confederations Cup just days earlier, dismantling world champions Spain 3-0 at the Maracana. 

‘I don’t know how he looks,’ he added. ‘Two or three years ago when Rafael van der Vaart came here and I said hello to him but I didn’t know that he was Rafael van der Vaart.’

Now a Premier League cult hero, Assou-Ekotto had a somewhat convincing rationale, explaining: ‘I don’t understand people who don’t understand me because they don’t go back home with their stuff from work and enjoy with it.’

In this regard Assou-Ekotto should be one of the most relatable footballers of recent times. The full back was unashamedly individual and refused to conform to the multitude of demands put up players of the sport in the modern day. 

‘I don’t understand why everybody lies,’ he told the Guardian in 2010. ‘The president of my former club Lens, Gervais Martel, said I left because I got more money in England, that I didn’t care about the shirt.

‘I said: “Is there one player in the world who signs for a club and says, “Oh, I love your shirt? Your shirt is red. I love it.”

‘He doesn’t care. The first thing that you speak about is the money.’

Assou-Ekotto’s money-motivation should not detract from the quality he provided at Spurs during his peak years. After a slow start at White Hart Lane under Martin Jol and Juande Ramos, the defender established himself as a key player under Harry Redknapp, whose side sealed Champions League qualification for the first time in the club’s history. 

In all, he made 204 appearances in north London, scoring four goals, including a stunner against Liverpool on the opening day of the 2010-11 season. 

‘He was good. He was a really good player and he was always 8/9 out of 10,’ former Spurs colleague Peter Crouch said on his podcast. ‘But [he] was just so difficult to manage. 

‘He just didn’t want to do anything that you asked him to do.’

Crouch had a front-row seat for some of the French-born star’s idiosyncrasies during his two years at the club. As recounted by the former striker, these ranged from the refusal to participate in post-match recovery sessions to bringing his own meals, for lack of a better word, to meet-ups ahead of games. 

‘He would come for pre-match meals and he’d have a little bag from Tesco,’ said Crouch. ‘You could go “Benoit, look, you’ve got to eat what everyone else is eating” but he goes “No, I like my croissant”, he’ll have his hot chocolate and a cereal bar. 

‘He wouldn’t get in the ice bath, wouldn’t watch any football – no interest in football whatsoever. He’d turn up on a Saturday, we’d have a game against, let’s say Wolves, and he’d have no idea who we were playing.

‘He very rarely put a foot wrong, just a different type of character to what we’re used to.’ 

Assou-Ekotto gradually saw his gametime diminish following Redknapp’s sacking, with injuries contributing to his tally of just 15 league appearances in 2012/13 campaign. The defender would reunite with his former boss when he spent a year on loan in the Championship with QPR the next season. 

But after helping Rangers secure an immediate return to the top-flight, his time on these shores were done and he made his return to France, joining Saint-Etienne as a free agent, having not playing a game for Spurs in his final season. 

His return to France marked the end of his career at the highest level, while his high-profile bust-up with Cameroon team-mate Benjamin Moukandjo signalled the end of his international career. 

Assou-Ekotto represented the Indomitable Lions 23 times, telling the Guardian that playing for the country of his father’s birth ‘was a natural and normal thing’. 

‘I have no feeling for the France national team; it just doesn’t exist,’ he explained. ‘When people ask of my generation in France, “Where are you from?”, they will reply “Morocco, Algeria, Cameroon or wherever”.’

The depth of feeling for the country of his ancestors spilled over during Cameroon’s 4-0 defeat by Croatia in their second group match at the 2024 World Cup in Brazil. 

Assou-Ekotto incredibly headbutted his own team-mate in the closing stages of the match in Manaus after he opted to take on a Croatian defender instead of passing the ball. 

‘It all started with the first match against Mexico,’ he explained in 2014. ‘Moukandjo was on my flank, he tried to dribble past two opponents and lost the ball.

‘I told him he should pass it to me. He replied I was right. The same situation happened against Croatia again. Everyone can make a mistake. But when I told him again, he replied: ‘Get off my back!’

‘I could not accept his reaction. There was so much frustration in that match.’

In an interview with Mail Sport in 2022, he added: ‘I don’t have to be sorry about it. It wasn’t like I did it after five minutes and got a red card.’

With his international exploits at an end after the incident and with irregular appearances in Ligue 1, Assou-Ekotto came close to a return to the UK and a third link-up with Redknapp. 

However, a move to Championship side Birmingham City, where the veteran boss sought to mastermind another promotion to the Premier League, was scuppered by the defender’s desire to join the adult film industry. 

That’s how Redknapp recalled it, in what appeared to be a joke taken out of context. 

‘The only trouble is that he’s admitted he wants to be a pornstar,’ Redknapp told the Spurs Show podcast in 2017. ‘Maybe I can get another year out of him before he decides to do that.

Just a couple of days later, Assou-Ekotto revealed the consequences of his former manager’s public statement.

‘It was just a joke. What is absurd is that it has been taken seriously. As if I wanted to become a porn actor,’ he told France Football. ‘It made me happy that he [Redknapp] thought of me and said that he wanted me after no contact for three or four years.

‘The joke didn’t bother me at all, it made me laugh. What bothers me is that people take everything so seriously. If he had said that I wanted to be a cosmonaut it would have made less noise!’

‘My mother discovered it on Mother’s Day, he added. ‘She told me that she would have preferred a different gift!’ 

After retiring in 2018, Assou-Ekotto is enjoying life as a full-time dad to his young children with no financial worries, having been vindicated in his approach to use the sport as means to a better future. 

Reflecting on his career and cult status, he told Mail Sport: ‘England was the best time of my career. After that I lost motivation so I stopped in order to be happy.

‘I know I’m privileged that football has given me the opportunity to care for my family without stress.

‘England will always be special to me — I am better known there than in France. If I’m in London, Spurs fans will talk to me.

‘If someone wants a picture, then no problem, let’s do a nice one with both of us smiling.’